Knegt Retires: Short Track Star Ends Career After Injury

Sjinkie Knegt retires after a career of sixteen years as a short tracker. ‘De Schicht from Bantega’ was the first Dutchman to win an Olympic short track medal (bronze in the 1,000 meters in 2014) and was the face of Dutch short track for many years.

An injury means that a final participation in the Olympic Games is no longer possible: “I have had an injury in my buttock for months and it is not recovering quickly enough. As a result, I no longer have a view of the Games in Milan, where I wanted to go for gold one more time,” Knegt told NOS.

The 36-year-old Knegt is seen as one of the pioneers in Dutch short track. Together with Daan Breeuwsma, Freek van der Wart and the current national coach Niels Kerstholt, he made the sport bigger and bigger in the country.

De Fries was the first Dutchman to win a short track medal at the Games. In 2014 he won bronze in the 1,000 meters in Sochi. In the same year, he became world champion in the relay with the Dutch men’s team in Montreal, something he repeated in Rotterdam in 2017.

He also won an individual world title in the 500 meters in his own country and won the rankings at the World Cup in 2015. Knegt also became European champion several times.

Due to his good performances, Knegt was elected Sportsman of the Year in 2015, ahead of BMX rider Niek Kimmann and show jumping rider Jeroen Dubbeldam. “I was voted Sportsman of the Year in a sport that was not well known at all. I thought that was very special. That evening I did not expect that I would win at all,” Knegt looks back.

Outside the short track track, Knegt was sometimes less fortunate. For example, in 2019 he suffered serious burns when lighting a wood stove, which also left its mark on the ice.

After his return in 2020, Knegt still hoped for new successes, but it was no longer possible.

The Frisian then decided that it is now time for a future without the sport in which he was so successful. But he does not rule out a return to short track. Would he perhaps like to become a national coach in the future?

“I don’t want to say that out loud yet. I know quite a lot about short track, but I can still learn a lot from a training perspective.”