Nine Olympic Athletes added to Olympic Wall at Sportcentrum Zernike

On Friday 17 June, nine Olympic athletes were added to the Olympic wall at Zernike Campus’ Sportcentrum in Groningen. The athletes all appeared in the most recent Summer or Winter Olympics and studied at the University of Groningen or Hanze University in the last four years.

The following athletes received a spot on the Olympic wall:

• Leonie van Vliet (UG), 4 x 100 metres relay, Tokyo 2020
• Inger Smits (UG), handball, Tokyo 2020
• Caroline Groot (UG), para-cycling, Tokyo 2020, bronze medalist
• Ymkje Clevering (UG), rowing, Tokyo 2020, silver medalist
• Xandra Velzeboer (UG), short track speed skating, Beijing 2022, gold medalist
• Ellia Smeding (Hanze), long track speed skating, Beijing 2022 (on behalf of Great Britain)
• Dennis Veenker (Hanze), bobsleigh, Beijing 2022
• Sanne in ’t Hof (Hanze), long track speed skating, Beijing 2022
• Eythora Thorsdottir (Hanze), artistic gymnastics, Rio 2016/Tokyo 2020

The athletes’ portraits were revealed by Hans Biemans, member of the Board of the University of Groningen, and Petra Smeets, member of the Board of the Hanze University. The unveiling happened in front of an audience including a few former athletes that had received a spot on the Olympic wall in previous years. The wall now includes a total of sixty portraits of (former) athletes who attended the Olympics while studying at the University of Groningen or Hanze University.