Lausanne, Switzerland

With the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games getting closer, Dutch Short Track Speed Skater Sjinkie Knegt still seeks daily improvement after coming back from two horrific injuries. “I am happy I came this far, but I still hope to improve and get better in the future,” Knegt said.

At the 2021 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Dordrecht (NED), Knegt helped the Dutch men’s team to the World Relay title and finished 14th in the Overall Classification. “It felt great to be back on the World stage after missing the World Championships two times,” he said.

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Sjinkie Knegt (NED) at the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)

The Dutch star returned to the ice a year ago after being side-lined for more than a year. Knegt, the 2015 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Champion, made his comeback after suffering severe burns in January 2019, when burning wood fell on to a thinner bottle which exploded as he lit the wood-burning stove at his home.

His clothes caught fire and the three-time Olympian suffered burns to his face, chest, legs and feet. Hospitalized for seven weeks, his problems were compounded because at the time he was also recovering from a serious injury to his left leg, which he sustained the previous month in an accident with a forklift truck.

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Sjinkie Knegt (NED) at the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)

“Since then, my biggest motivation was to show the world that it’s possible to come back on the highest level after a hard injury like I had. Last year, I made my comeback at the World Cup in Dordrecht and it went pretty well, but there is always room for improvement.”

He said he’s been working on those improvements since his appearance at the 2020 ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event in Dordrecht.

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Sjinkie Knegt (NED) at the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)

“It has been hard to get back on the level I was always competing on before. It took a lot of time. I am happy I came this far, but I still seek for [daily] improvements. I hope to do even better in the future.”

Icerink in backyard

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Sjinkie Knegt (NED) at the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2021©International Skating Union (ISU)

Knegt, who clinched Olympic bronze in the 1000m in 2014 and Olympic silver in the 1500m in 2018, mentioned the Beijing 2022 Olympics as the biggest goal for the upcoming season, but admitted last season [2020/21] had been far from easy.

“I simply love racing and if you can’t race, that is pretty hard. I had moments where the motivation was completely gone, because we didn’t know when we would skate or have a competition.”

During that time, Knegt built his own icerink in his backyard with the help of one of his sponsors and Dutch skaters Kjeld Nuis, Dai Dai Ntab and Suzanne Schulting. “It was more of a commercial stunt, but it’s been quite funny to have my own icerink. It was quite small, so I couldn’t really skate there. But for the kids it was real fun, they enjoyed it for the whole month.”

“My kids are quite young, but they know exactly what Short Track is. The oldest one already skates and I am sure the both of them will take up Short Track when they are able to,” Knegt said with a smile on his face.