Flying Dutchwoman

Personality : Dafne Schippers' dazzling exploits in the 200M last season have pitchforked her into limelight

Dafne Schippers’ eyes light up when she recalls how she first got into athletics. She used to play tennis as a child but aged nine, was encouraged to give athletics a go following a sponsored run.

“I went along to a training session and it was a lot of fun and then the second training was a competition and they said, ‘Oh, you can compete with us in the sprint,” she remembers. “I came second and I got a medal. To get something like that for a child aged nine, that is very special.”

Since winning that very first medal the Dutchwoman has amassed quite a collection. Her accolades include World Championship gold, silver and bronze in the sprints and the heptathlon, European indoor and outdoor titles as well as global age-group medals. The latest addition was the 200M world title she won in Beijing, her time of 21.63 a European record and the fastest performance in 17 years. Although the time came as a huge surprise to the 23-year-old, winning the gold medal had been on her mind for a while. Following her European Championshps sprint double in 2014, last winter’s 60M indoor title was a certain indicator of things to come.

“The first moment (I realised I had a chance in the sprints) was the 60M (at the European Indoor Championships) in Prague,” she remembers. “I ran very fast and I had a good start. The start is normally not the best part of my race but when I ran that 7.05 I knew the 100M and 200M would be much better.”

But Schippers was still torn. She loves the heptathlon as much as the sprints and with the Beijing World Championships looming on the horizon she had to make a decision. In Hengelo in May, at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games, she clocked a national record of 10.94. The prestigious Gotzis multi-events meeting a week later would be the decider.

In 2014, she had finished third behind Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Brainne Theisen-Eaton and scored a national record 6545 points. But this year things felt different. “I always have problems with my knee. It’s always the same issue and there was a moment in Gotzis before the 800M that was very difficult. That was the moment where I thought ‘My knee is not very good, it’s probably not the best thing to continue.”
Schippers did not line up for the final event and the rest of her season, one devoted to the sprints, stretched out before her. In Beijing she improved with every round. In the 100M she bettered her own national record, first in the semifinal, then again a couple of hours later in the final when she ran 10.81 to finish second behind Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

Once she had secured the 100M silver there was only thing left to do. “Winning the 200M was the most important thing for me,” she says. Schippers was not only sure of her ability but confident she could handle the media pressure too.

“I remember in 2010 when I was a junior, in the Netherlands before the World Juniors (in Moncton, Canada) the press was saying, “You are first on the world list, so now you will be world champion.’ There was pressure but I learned from that.”

Indeed, she seemed to thrive under it. Then aged 18, she returned from Canada as world junior champion in the heptathlon and brought home a relay bronze as well. In Beijing, as one of the favourites for the sprint titles, the burden of expectation was even bigger.

“All the press from all around the world was saying, ‘Surely you must win. When you have a silver medal in the 100M, then you will win the 200M.’”

She did not fail to deliver, becoming the third fastest in history and the Netherlands’ first ever outdoor world sprint champion. But the ever-perfectionist Schippers wasn’t sure she would live up to all the expectations until the very end of the race.

“My bend wasn’t actually that fast and all the girls were going round it really well. I was thinking, ‘Oh no, I messed up.’” she remembers. “But I knew that my second 100M is better than the bend.

“I think Elaine (Thomspon of Jamaica, who finished second in the 21.66) was about one metre ahead of me. That was what did the trick for me, to catch her right at the end.”

The images of Schippers crossing the line, arm raised in victory, her finger pointing to the sky, made global headlines. Although she’s had several months to let her historic performance sink in, Schippers still talks about the race in disbelief.  “When I was crossing that finish line I knew I had won the race but then I saw the time and thought, “No way, that isn’t possible! Obviously, it was.”

The welcome she received on her return to the Netherlands was worthy of royalty. The fire brigade waited for her at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, a road in Utrecht, her hometown, was renamed the ‘Dafne Schipperslaan’; even a baby seal, rescued from the city’s old canal, was named after her. It was defininitely an exciting time and while the first few weeks were fun and new, Schippers was glad when the initial euphoria calmed down a bit. “It’s better now, more relaxed,” she says. “But when I walk my dog in the streets everyone is watching me or asking how it was in Beijing. It is very special and very nice but I am glad it has died down a bit now.”

Schippers got a much-deserved break in October, spending time in Malaga before returning to training. She also took a quick break in Lausanne to collect yet another accolade, the Female European Athlete of the Year award, her mother, Karen and father, Ernst, by her side, as always.

“They are very special for me,” she says. “They go to all the competitions with me all around the world, everywhere, drink coffee with me before the race, all that. When I have a problem with anything -- sport or other things -- I can always to to them and talk with them and it very good for me. I am very much a family person.”

While mum and dad might be the ones accompanying her on trips, it is sister Sanne who has become her team-mate on a little side project, her own food blog, called ‘Dafne likes...’ Time though is becoming tigher now she’s back in training, all guns blazing, preparing for the Olympic Games. Running faster over 200M would mean one thing: closing in even further on a certain world record. When people list out her status among the all-time pantheon of half-lap sprinters, she just laughts, still trying to come to terms with her Beijing achievement.

“Sometimes it’s crazy when you think about it -- what a time!” she says. “After the heptathlon I knew I could run faster than I had in years before because yes, I didn’t train for it.  Now I trained over the last year more than I did before and also had the winter for the sprints and you see I made such big steps. Having that first year training as a sprinter makes me really excited for the new season. It’s unbeleivable.”

Before turning her focus on Rio, Schippers has another competition to look forward to. Amsterdam is hosting the European Championships in July and the sprinter is excited to step on track in front of a home crowd, though she brushes off rumours of a sprint-long jump double.

“The 100, the 200, the 4x1 and the long jump -- that is too much,” she says. “I stopped with the heptathlon so I could focus on the 100M and the 200M. I’ll do the long jump for fun in competitions, I like the long jump and training for it.

“Sometimes there are moments where I can’t quite believe what has happened in this last year. You decide to focus on sprinting and then suddenly you win a gold medal,” she laughs, still in disbelief, before adding: “Now there is one medal to go and that is the (Olympic) gold.”