More than 40 students and alumni of the Johan Cruyff Institute, Johan Cruyff Academy and Johan Cruyff College will compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris
The Olympic Games, the premier meeting of international athletes, will start in the city of Paris. Originally announced on July 31, 2017, it is the XXXIII Olympiad. The competition will be held from Friday, July 26 to Sunday, August 11. In addition, the Paris Paralympic Games will be held from Wednesday, August 28 to Sunday, September 8, 2024. This will be the second city (along with London) to host the Olympic Games three times, after 1900 and 1924, thus marking the 100th anniversary of the last Olympic Games held on Parisian soil.
Some of the elite athletes of the Cruyff Education academic network will temporarily leave the classroom to focus all their attention on the top competition. Of all the athletes who will be at the venues and in the Olympic Village, some 40 of them will have something else in common besides their dreams of winning medals: they are members of the “Cruyff family”. In this article we highlight the stories of some of the members of the Cruyff Education academic community who will participate in Paris 2024.
Noortje and Bregje de Brouwer: two sisters and one passion for sport
Noortje and Bregje de Brouwer at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships.
Twin sisters and synchronized swimming duo, Noortje and Bregje de Brouwer are students at the Johan Cruyff Academy Amsterdam. Their career in high-performance sport began when they were young and led them to participate in various international competitions. This year, in Doha, they became the first Dutch duo to win a silver medal at the World Championships. As a result, they also won a ticket to the Olympic Games in Paris.
However, their road has not always been smooth. At the Tokyo Olympics they finished ninth, and due to a shoulder injury, Noortje was unable to train for a year and a half. Bregje was forced to swim with another teammate. Both are very happy to be a duo in the water again. “With my sister, I don’t have to think during a 35-hour training week how I contribute something, I don’t have to be polite. For all the years we’ve been training together, we have the same way of moving and understanding each other. That’s something I never had with another teammate,” says Bregje in an interview with HvA, the host university of the Johan Cruyff Academy Amsterdam, where both sisters study.
Each of the sisters knows her strengths: Noortje stands out for her mental stamina and Bregje for her physical strength. During the hardest parts of their training, Noortje was the one to encourage. “Come on, we can do it!” she would tell Bregje to motivate her. Now, because of her injury, Noortje says she has some catching up to do: “It’s not that I’ve lost confidence, but because of that I feel extra pressure. And so now it’s Bregje who has to pull on me a little bit and tell me that things are going to go well.”
Esther Jaumà, her coach, was coach of Spain’s Olympic team. Noortje and Bregje blindly trust her judgment: “If she has planned for the day to do three hours of conditioning, then that’s what we have to do. Esther would not allow us to participate in a competition feeling insecure. We are very grateful to her for that.”
Relaxation is essential to endure the tough training sessions and competitions. To relax, Noortje and Bregje travel frequently to visit family and friends. Another way to relax is to study. “Studying helps us to take our attention away from high-performance sport. We are now in our graduation year, our fifth year, there will probably be a sixth year. No doubt it will be tough, with lots of extra challenges. But we like that,” says Bregje.
Xena Wimmenhoeve: on the hunt for her second gold medal at the Paralympics 2024
Xena Wimmenhoeve is member of the Netherlands women’s national wheelchair basketball team. Photo: Ilse Schaffers/Orange Pictures.
A first-year student at the Johan Cruyff Academy Amsterdam, Xena Wimmenhoeve is part of the team that won gold in wheelchair basketball at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Expectations of successfully defending the title in Paris 2024 are high, both among the public and the players. “I am living a hectic and exciting time. In June, we all had commitments with our clubs, work or study. But from July onwards, everything revolves around the Games. It’s great to see how everyone is fully committed to preparing optimally,” says Xena.
“In August, during the preparation, we train three or four times a week with the Dutch team, twice a day for two hours. We also have some practice matches, one of them against Germany, who came fourth in Tokyo 2021. These are crucial moments to fine-tune our strategies and prepare for the real competition,” Xena explains. The Dutch women’s wheelchair basketball team is also scheduled to play a practice match against the United States. Xena stresses the importance of this match: “This way, we can test our skills against one of our biggest competitors in a realistic game situation. It’s great to be part of a project with so much drive and such a committed team.
Herman Kruis: Indian Hockey Team’s Road to Paris 2024
Hockey India selection committee for the Olympic Trials (June 24, 2024). Herman Kruis in the middle with head coach Craig Fulton next to him.
On July 27, the Indian men’s field hockey team will make its debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games against New Zealand. Field hockey India’s Director of High Performance, Herman Kruis, was also manager of Johan Cruyff College Roosendaal until 2023. There, he helped many athletes to combine their career with an MBO education. As an ambassador of Cruyff Education, Kruis remains committed to dual careers and to creating an environment in which top athletes can realize their full potential. During Paris 2024, Herman Kruis will work with the team’s staff, attend matches and participate in player selection.
The team’s goal, according to Herman Kruis, is to win a medal. However, he admits that it will be difficult: “There are several very competitive teams, such as the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Argentina. It is very important for us to get out of the group stage. The opponents in the next phases depend on the qualification. Therefore, the first match against New Zealand is very important. Every game requires a lot of work and decisions down to the smallest details,” he says.
