Career
Dijkstra became the dominant ladies' single skater following the retirement of Carol Heiss in 1960, who took gold medals in Winter Olympics and World Championships that year to Dijkstra's silver medals in both competitions. Dijkstra won all the World and European Championships held between 1961 and 1964 (1961 World Championships was cancelled after Sabena Flight 548 Crash). Her win at the 1964 Winter Olympics was the first gold for the Netherlands at the Winter Olympics. She is the last person to have won Olympic gold medal after winning a silver or bronze medal in a prior Olympic in Ladies Figure Skating. After 1964, she turned professional and toured with Holiday On Ice from 1964 to 1972. She became the advisor to the figure skating section of the Dutch Skating Federation in 1985. Currently she does commentary for Dutch television.
In 2005, she was awarded the Fanny Blankers-Koen Trophy, for her contributions to Dutch sports.
During her competitive career, Dijkstra trained in Richmond, London with Arnold Gerschwiler. While her main strength was compulsory figures, she was also a very powerful and athletic free skater who could perform high-quality double axels and flying spins, and who skated with easy movement and strong flow. At 1.68 metres, she was fairly tall for a skater, and one magazine article noted that "she is much more slender in person than she appears on the ice".
Read more about this topic: Sjoukje Dijkstra
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)