5 X what you didn't know about Joep Wennemars
We all saw it yesterday, there were about four million viewers, or well, almost all of them. I looked away when Joep Wennemars stretched his right leg over the finish line. Because that’s where it went wrong. Very wrong. The Chinese skater Ziwen Lian did not give Joep the right of way on the track, resulting in at least a second of lost time. And that on a distance where nanoseconds count. The interviews after his still strong race would remind my parents of a teenage me: short answers, sighs, and hands in his hair. Understandable, who would want to give an interview after the biggest disappointment of their life? But despite all that, the question remained for me: ‘Who is Joep when the iron shoes come off?’
1. Joep is on his own
With a father who won eight world titles and two bronze medals at the Olympic Games, you would think Joep gets golden tips for every race. Pay attention to this and think about that. But Joep really does it himself. Erben deliberately avoids contact with his son before competitions to not plant any scenarios in his head. It’s certainly not disinterest, more a form of protection. Erben Wennemars said earlier: ‘You have to race intuitively, from your heart, from your own being.’ I can only think about how yesterday's situation, with Joep and the Chinese Lian he shared the track with, feels very familiar. Erben Wennemars experienced a similar heartbreak at the Olympic Games. At the Games in Japan, Erben seemed to be on his way to the podium but was caught in the fall of the Norwegian Njos in the very last outside corner. Like father, like son?
2. Destined
Because his father was also a skater, I would say it’s meant to be that Joep is now also skating laps. Yet his heart used to beat for football. Due to time constraints, he had to make a choice in high school. And that ultimately became (thankfully) long track speed skating.
3. Kids first
Maybe we wouldn’t have seen Joep Wennemars skate yesterday if his mother Renate Wennemars hadn’t made a life-changing choice. Renate presented programs like De Smaakpolitie and Yorin Travel in the two thousands. And I looked back: she did it well. She left her TV ambitions behind for Erben Wennemars’ skating career. Renate quickly realized that Erben and she could never both do what they loved full-time. No second thoughts thankfully, she tells RTL-Boulevard: “That didn’t really feel like a career, it just felt like fun work.” Erben is, and rightly so in my opinion, grateful. He says: “We made that choice. We put a lot of energy and time into our children. I find that very important.”
4. Athletic family
The athletic genes have not only been passed on to Joep but also to his younger brother Niels Wennemars. He is involved in Hyrox. Everything from 80-meter burpee jumps to lunges with heavy weights on your shoulders. He completed one with his elderly father Erben, as his TikTok stated. Well, that ‘elderly’ did better than I ever could: the father-son duo crossed the finish line within an hour. And as if it were nothing, Niels also did a Hyrox with, among others, the couple Enzo Knol and Myron Knoops.
5. Madly in love
But enough about the Wennemars family. Joep has found love on the track. Team Essent brought him and skater Suzanne Schulting closer together. They have been in a relationship for about a year now. Although it was announced only a month after her previous love ended, they seem soulfully happy. And how nice to have someone by your side who can somewhat feel the pressure and sadness of this moment.
