Koen Verweij

When and where did you begin this sport?

He did inline skating and speed skating as a child, but at age 16 he began to focus solely on speed skating.

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Other sports	He has competed in roller speed skating, and finished seventh in the marathon at the 2012 World Championships in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. (SportsDeskOnline, 24 Jan 2014)
Injuries	A back injury ruled him out of competing at the 2021 Dutch National Championships in Heerenveen, Netherlands. (schaatsen.nl, 01 Nov 2021) In 2020 he was out of action for six weeks with a hernia. (Instagram profile, 23 Nov 2020) His performances during the 2017/18 season were affected by cytomegalovirus [CMV]. (nos.nl, 25 Jun 2018) He missed the whole of the 2015/16 season and only competed in a limited number of competitions during the 2016/17 season due to injuries and motivational issues. (ad.nl, 30 Oct 2017; nu.nl, 28 Oct 2017; proskating.nl, 01 Dec 2015)
Famous relatives	His partner Jutta Leerdam has represented the Netherlands in speed skating and won two gold medals at the 2020 World Single Distances Championships in Salt Lake City, UT, United States of America. (schaatsen.nl, 20 Oct 2021; SportsDeskOnline, 08 Dec 2020; linda.nl, 30 Jun 2020)
Ambitions	To compete at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. (schaatsen.nl, 09 Oct 2018)
Other information	SOCHI DISAPPOINTMENT He missed out on the gold medal in the 1500m at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi by three one-thousandths of a second. He was initially judged to have matched the time of Polish skater Zbigniew Brodka before race officials determined that Brodka had been victorious by the slight margin. "When I crossed the finish line, I saw I had the same time. You hope it falls on your side but it didn't. You can't describe it. Still, silver, I don't know, it doesn't feel that good. I really wanted gold. The silver medal is for the first loser." (reuters.com, 15 Feb 2014)
Sporting philosophy / motto	"Go hard or go home." (Athlete, 13 Nov 2017)

Club / Team	Team Worldstream: Netherlands
Name of coach	Kosta Poltavets [club], RUS; Rutger Tijssen [club], NED

www.koenverweij.com