Nearly a dozen Dutch swimmers have made the trek to Flagstaff, Arizona this week to undergo altitude training at Northern Arizona University.
All stemming from the Dutch High-Performance center, the assembled group of athletes include Kira Toussaint, Stan Pijnenburg, Kenzo Simons, Luc Kroon, Jesse Puts, Arno Kamminga, Kim Busch, Maaike de Waard, Marrit Steenbergen, Imani de Jong and Silke Holkenborg.
Toussaint visited her alma mater of the University of Tennessee prior to joining the group yesterday, with the squad set to train in Flagstaff for just over 3 weeks. They’re due to return to the Netherlands on February 5th.
At this summer’s Olympic Games, the Dutch team raced its way to a trio of silver medals. Two came from Kamminga in the men’s 100m and 200m breaststroke while Sharon van Rouwendaal scored the same result in the women’s 10k open water race.
Prior to Tokyo, the squad reaped 12 medals in all, including 6 gold, at the 2021 European Long Course Championships this past May.
At the Short Course edition of the European Championships which took place in November, the Netherlands wreaked even more havoc, cashing out with 18 total medals including 8 golds. Among them was an individual 400m free European title from Kroon, a 200m free gold from Steenbergen and a backstroke sweep from Toussaint.
The Netherlands capped off their 2021 year at the FINA Short Course World Championships, snagging 8 medals highlighted by Ranomi Kromowidjojo‘s 50m fly gold.
The British team was supposed to go but, cancelled for covid reasons. Interesting the Dutch have taken a different approach to the risk.
Interesting location, never heard a national swim team go to Flagstaff for training! Curious how the facilities are at Northern Arizona University and if the University is just opening up all their facilities for them. Might be a little risky with the post-holiday Omicron taking over college campuses
National teams go to Flagstaff with some regularity. Flagstaff has basically built itself a nice little cottage industry around altitude training for a number of different sports, and that includes the beautiful pool at NAU.
https://www.flagstaffarizona.org/blog/center-of-the-altitude-training-universe/
https://azdailysun.com/news/local/stars-shine-brightly-in-flagstaff-olympic-stars-that-is/article_0979fec3-f400-5539-93bd-748f19394ee5.html
Alexander Dale Oen was actually training in Flagstaff with the Norwegian National Team when he died in 2012.