Joan Haanappel competed in the Olympic Games in 1956 and 1960 as an figure skater. She is now 81 years old. She is the driving force behind the Netherlands Figure Skating Foundation (SKN), which took care of the then 11-year-old Lindsay van Zundert five years ago. This month Lindsay is the first Dutch figure skater at the Winter Games in 46 years and together with skater Kjeld Nuis she can carry the Dutch flag into the stadium at the opening ceremony in Beijing.
During a selection competition more than five years ago, the legendary skater saw Lindsay for the first time. It turned out to be a girl from Etten-Leur who was training in Belgium. Joan Haanappel immediately saw potential. “You have to estimate whether she is still suitable for figure skating three years later. This is where it all seems to come together. I approached the mother and we invited Lindsay.”
Joan’s foundation took care of Lindsay and provided the best possible facilities. Thanks to the intensive collaboration, Joan and Lindsay have become very close.
She kind of calls Lindsay family. “All my children at SKN are gifts, but Lindsay has everything to become a good figure skater. I also enjoy watching her grow up and I have a very good relationship with her.” What makes Van Zundert suitable? “She has a lot of talent and she works very hard, of her own accord.”
Even Haanappel did not expect that Van Zundert immediately qualified for the Games at the World Cup in 2021. “I was just sitting here under my skylight watching. I lock myself up for a race like that and my husband has to look elsewhere. She started riding and the points just kept going up. I could hardly believe it. Just sixteen years old and on her first World Cup!”
Haanappel knows: she will never be as open-minded as at that World Cup. “I had a good talk with her about that. Now people are going to expect something from you.” It didn’t go so well at the last European Championship. “I was already afraid it had all become too much. But she knows that now. There has been hardly any distraction between the European Championship and the Games and that does not happen in China either. The press should only come afterwards.”