If anyone knows what it’s like to participate in the Olympic Games, it’s Ireen Wüst. She has attended five times since 2006, each edition with success. At her last Winter Games, in 2022, Wüst did not have her best season, but on the ice in Beijing she once again peaked at exactly the right time: she won her sixth gold Olympic medal in the 1,500 meters. The Games have “something magical,” Wüst said after that race. “When I see those rings, I think: let’s go.”
That year, Wüst, the most successful Dutch Olympian of all time (twice bronze, five times silver, six times gold), retired as a top athlete. But she never left the sports world. At the recent Winter Games in Milan and Cortina she was a regular face as an analyst at the NOS. Wüst has also been working for the sports umbrella organization NOC-NSF since 2023, as an expert on performance behavior and mental health.
Now a new and highly visible position follows: Ireen Wüst (40) will become the chef de mission for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028. She takes over that position from former swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband, who recently had to leave NOC-NSF. He was chef de mission at both the Tokyo (2021) and Paris (2024) Games.
Since ‘Rio’ top athletes have been chef de mission
With Wüst, NOC-NSF has once again opted for a former athlete with a great track record, after three-time Olympic champion Van den Hoogenband. This interpretation is relatively new: until recently, the position of chef de mission was performed by directors of NOC-NSF. In Rio de Janeiro (2016) it was Maurits Hendriks, who combined that role with his then position as technical director. After ‘Rio’, the position was cut loose by NOC-NSF and awarded to former top athletes. For example, former skater Carl Verheijen was chef de mission at the past two Winter Games, and former wheelchair tennis player Esther Vergeer held that position at no fewer than five consecutive Paralympic Games.
As chef de mission, Wüst will be the poster boy for the Dutch Olympic team in Los Angeles. But contrary to what is sometimes thought, it is not a purely ceremonial role. In her new position, Wüst will be the IOC’s point of contact during the Games and will deal with practical matters on which Olympians want to waste as little energy as possible: from bus transport and food in the Olympic village, to circulating viruses.
The chef de mission also has a ‘softer’ role, as an expert by experience who top athletes can turn to during the Games. This also became clear when Van den Hoogenband announced at the beginning of this month that he had to quit and several athletes responded via social media. “Piet, thank you for all the life lessons, wise advice, wonderful stories during those magical Olympic Games,” wrote track cyclist Shanne Braspennincx, Olympic champion on the keirin in Tokyo.
Wüst will be officially presented by NOC-NSF at Papendal on Tuesday afternoon. The NOS reports that, if the collaboration is satisfactory, Wüst also becomes chef de mission at the next Winter Games, in 2030. These will take place in the French Alps and in Thialf, where Wüst skated around twenty medals in her career and retired as a top athlete in 2022.