NOS Nominations
NOS Sport•zondag, 18:14
Will it be Femke Bol, who won the athletics victories this year? Sifan Hassan, who amazed everyone and turned out to have a phenomenal marathon in his legs? Or rower Karolien Florijn, who ruled in the single sculls?
All three will compete for the title of Sportswoman of the Year on Wednesday, December 20 at the annual Sports Gala.
For the men, the battle is between Max Verstappen, who stood head and shoulders above the rest in Formula 1, Mathieu van der Poel, who heroically became world cycling champion, and Harrie Lavreysen, the sprint king on the track.
View all nominees from the seven categories in the slider below.
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Nominees Sports Gala
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Nominees Sports Gala
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Nominees Sports Gala
Bol was missing from the three nominees last year, much to the frustration of her coach Laurent Meuwly. The Swiss called the annual sports election a ‘farce’, because his pupil had achieved a unique treble at the European Championships that year: gold in the 400 meters, 400 meters hurdles and 4×400 meters relay. “How can she be overlooked,” he wondered.
This year the 23-year-old hurdles specialist from Amersfoort has been noticed quite a bit. She ran a memorable World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August. It started with a fall just before the finish of the 4×400 meter mixed relay, which dramatically missed the Dutch team’s gold medal.
But the World Cup ended with a big smile for Bol. After she had conquered the world title in the 400 meter hurdles with superior force, the party in the Bol house was only complete with the gold in the 4×400 meter relay with the women’s team.
Hassan is moving borders
The annual Sports Gala is not new for Hassan. She has already been named Athlete of the Year twice: in 2019 and 2021. This year she pushed her boundaries again and won both the London and Chicago marathons. And in between she also won silver and bronze in the 5,000 and 1,500 meters respectively at the World Athletics Championships.
The two athletics giants will compete against rower Florijn. Perhaps a less well-known name to the general public, but Florijn is a very big one in the rowing world. She owes her nomination for the Sportswoman of the Year election to her world and European titles in the single scull last year.
These are the nominees for Sportswoman and Sports Team of the Year
Among the men, Verstappen can become Sportsman of the Year for the third time in a row. He seemed unable to surpass 2022, but the now three-time world champion did so, by a large margin.
Heroic victory Van der Poel
But whether he will win the election for the third time is anything but a certainty. This year he will compete against Van der Poel, who won the world title on the road in a very special way.
The heroism was in getting up after the fall. Just before the finish he crashed and everything seemed to slip out of his hands. But Van der Poel recovered from the wet Scottish asphalt and still cycled to the world title.
These are the nominees for Sportsman and Coach of the Year
And then there is track cyclist Lavreysen. The 26-year-old muscle man once again proved to be the king of the sprint last year. In Glasgow he won the world title for the fifth time in a row. In addition, he also won gold in the team sprint together with Jeffrey Hoogland and Roy van den Berg.
The three nominated teams competing for the title of Sports Team of the Year are the Jumbo-Visma cycling team (won all three Grand Tours with three different riders), the 4×400 meter women’s relay team (gold at the Athletics World Championships) and the water polo women (after 32 years). world champion again after a thrilling victory over Spain in the final).
Four candidates for Sports Coach of the Year
The list for Sports Coach of the Year consists of four men: Meuwly (coach of, among others, Bol and the women’s relay), Merijn Zeeman (team leader of Jumbo-Visma), Eelco Meenhorst (national coach of the rowers) and Evangelos Doudesis, national coach of the water polo women. .
Liesette Bruinsma (para swimming), Diede de Groot (wheelchair tennis) and Fleur Jong (para athletics) compete for the title Para Sports Woman of the Year. Daniel Abraham Gebru (para track and road cycling), Rogier Dorsman (para swimming) and Joël de Jong (para athletics) compete for the title of Para Sportsman of the Year.
The wheelchair tennis men’s quads doubles (Niels Vink and Sam Schröder), wheelchair basketball women and the tandem duo of men in para track cycling (Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos) have been nominated for the Para Sports Team of the Year award.
