ANP Mark Caljouw
NOS Sport•vandaag, 06:29
Dean van het Laar
editor NOS Sport
Dean van het Laar
editor NOS Sport
Just when Mark Caljouw smells victory, things go completely wrong. The badminton player lost two match points last year and lost the quarter-finals of the European Games. No chance of winning medals. And the Olympic Games are further away than ever. The defeat is a big slap in the face and has major consequences for Caljouw.
My self-confidence suddenly disappeared, as did my enjoyment of the sport. Months later, now that the best badminton players from the Netherlands are gathering in Almere this weekend for the Dutch championship, the way up has been found. But five-time national champion Caljouw is still the big absentee at the National Championships.
After a traumatic period, during which he spent months seeing a psychologist, he is now fighting his way back to his old level in order to still qualify for the Paris Games next summer.
‘Pitiful, little boy’
To find out the cause, we have to go back to last June. Caljouw is on match point in the quarter-finals of the European Games. If he wins the match, he will qualify for the semi-finals, but more importantly: he will earn a ticket for the Games in France. But it does not work.
The pressure was too much for him. From the NOC*NSF, but also from within itself. “Shortly after the defeat, I was in the shower and felt like a sad little boy. Since then I haven’t felt like myself for several months. I didn’t want to play badminton anymore.”
“Not that people noticed me, because I laughed it all off. But my results in subsequent tournaments were far below par. Then I sounded the alarm and eventually ended up seeing a psychologist.”
The confident badminton Mark I always was was suddenly very insecure.
Mark Caljouw
Together they concluded that Caljouw had suffered a trauma. “I find that very difficult to say, because there’s a lot of shit happening in the world and it’s just a badminton match, but that sport is my life. The treatment of trauma is the same as post-traumatic stress disorder. you go back to the core of the sadness, and for me that was the moment I lost it. There is so much pain and so much sadness.”
Uncertain ‘badminton Mark’
He experienced the absolute low point in October at the Dutch Open in Den Bosch, where we last spoke to Caljouw. “Family, friends, everyone comes to watch. You want to do your best, but you prefer to leave the court immediately. The confident badminton Mark that I always was, was suddenly very insecure.”
This was also evident from his result at that tournament, where he was eliminated in the first round.
Watch an interview with Caljouw below.
Badminton player Caljouw fell into a deep trough: ‘Missing Playing had a big impact on me’
No matter how deep and dark the period was, as time progressed there was light at the end of the tunnel. “After a session with the psychologist, I was in the car with my girlfriend and I spontaneously started to cry. I later thought: hey, maybe this is the last bit of sadness that needed to be released. From then on I knew that I was could talk about it calmly. And I also wanted to think ahead.”
‘Connecting’ with badminton
That’s what Caljouw did. In recent weeks he has felt himself transforming again into the athlete he recognizes. “I don’t know if the old Mark will ever come back. The most important thing is that I wanted to be back they connect with badminton, and that has now been achieved.”
With that positive mindset, Caljouw focuses on the Olympic Games, for which he will have one more chance to qualify. To achieve this he must win a medal at the European Games. “That will be incredibly difficult, because I don’t have a seeded status, so I can immediately face difficult opponents.”
“If it doesn’t work out, that’s a shame, but then I have had an experience from which I have learned a lot. I am going for it 100 percent and believe that I can do it.”
2024-02-01 05:39:31
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