NOS Skating•
The clock has also been ticking towards midnight all day in the UMC Utrecht. In intensive care, doctor Eline Cox (28) keeps a close eye on her pager. It’s New Year’s Eve, a day when something unpredictable can always happen in the hospital. Victims of accidents due to slippery roads, or seriously injured due to fireworks or carbide shooting.
Yet Cox is already thinking ahead, about tomorrow. Then the Dutch marathon skating championship awaits in Thialf. “Luckily I’m not working a shift tonight,” she says. “Tomorrow I will be on the ice, together with my team.”
That team, Turner Skating Team, consists of four women from the medical world and, according to Cox, is just as special as the combination of work and top sport that shapes their lives. “We founded the team ourselves because we wanted to continue skating and at the same time continue to grow in our work as a doctor or researcher.”
Skating doctors
In addition to Cox, the team consists of Iza Stekelenburg (oncological surgery), Judith Krabbenborg (cardiology and pulmonary medicine) and Manon Gbrake (muscle diseases). The fifth woman, Janet Beers, is a reserve and also has to work at the emergency room in Den Helder tonight. So they all work in healthcare. Their nickname was chosen jokingly: the skating doctors.
Cox was already good friends with two women. They all studied Medicine and skated at a high level, but had difficulty combining this. “We couldn’t always meet expectations of normal shifts,” Cox says. “For example, training during the day in Thialf in Heerenveen. That is not feasible at all if you want to work in the hospital.”
After a trip on the Weissensee – a mountain lake in Austria where the Alternative Eleven Cities Tour is held – the conversation turned to their ambitions: peaking on natural ice while maintaining their career. “We thought, ‘Why don’t we have our own team?’” Cox says. “We wanted to be able to make our own choices, without the feeling that we had to choose between work and sport.”
I sometimes joke that I experienced my first Elfstedentocht in my stomach”
The women founded their own marathon team with the help of their lender, a medical consulting firm. Their mission? Showing that a demanding job in healthcare and sporting ambition go hand in hand.
Balance between care and sport
The combination of night shifts and training requires planning and team spirit. “Last week we had a natural ice competition on Boxing Day. My colleagues took over my shift so that I could skate. In the hospital you work in teams. We also feel that solidarity on the ice.”
The team trains at irregular times, often early or between shifts. “Exercise helps us mentally to keep up the work. We want to show this to patients and colleagues: exercise makes you healthier and stronger in your profession.”
In the genes
For Cox, natural ice is special. Her mother rode the last Elfstedentocht, in 1997, just pregnant with Eline. “I sometimes joke that I experienced my first Elfstedentocht in my stomach,” she laughs. “Maybe that explains why I dream about it so much.”
First we have to survive New Year’s Eve in the ICU, a very tough shift. “If fireworks explode in someone’s face, for example, then that is really very dangerous. We also see a lot of people who have had too much drink or drugs around the New Year. The worst cases end up with us.”
