NOS Sport•
After exactly a year of absence, Nienke Brinkman is going to compete again. On January 11 she will appear at the start of the Egmond Half Marathon.
That was also the last competition for the 32-year-old athlete at the beginning of this year. Since then she has not played anymore due to mental problems.
Brinkman missed the Olympic Games in Paris due to injuries. In January she made her return to Egmond, but after that she was absent again for a long time.
“I started the past year with a lot of positivity and good energy, ready to return to my previous level. Unfortunately, I suffered another setback at the beginning of the year,” she writes. Instagram.
“I ended up in a deep valley mentally. Sports (not in professional form) kept me going, together with good help, the people around me and my loyal sponsors.”
New motivation
She has now found new motivation. “I have had to accept that I have to let go of all my big goals and dreams for the time being and just start enjoying the everyday things again.”
Brinkman only started competing in top sports at a later age, but quickly established her name in the marathon. In 2021, the graduated geophysicist ran the third Dutch time ever over the classic distance of 42 kilometers and 195 meters on her debut.
A year later she won bronze at the European Championships and in Rotterdam she fell under the nineteen-year-old Dutch record of Lornah Kiplagat.
