Marijn Wiersma: ‘I had five missed calls from my coach’
She planned to help as a volunteer during the World Cup Short Track in Dordrecht, but now she can start on the ice. The 16-year old Marijn Wiersma was, to her own surprise, invited to join the world cup team after the selection competition.
In the car from Heerenveen back home Wiersma, who finished fourth in Thialf behind Jorien ter Mors, Lara van Ruijven and Yara van Kerkhof, fell in a deep sleep when her mother’s phone rang. “I looked at my phone and I saw that I had five missed calls from my coach and a text saying ‘call me!’”.
“Marijn, you are going to the World Cups’, was what Wilma Boomstra told her when she returned the call. “I just woke up so I was like: huh? What is going on here? After the press release my friends and family kept calling me and congratulating on my selection all night. That is super cool of course.”
The respectful fourth place in the final classification didn’t create any World Cup expectations with the young talent of the Regional Training Centre. “It really came as a surprise. This was only my first selection competition and I didn’t expect they would select me, that they would fill the selection in an Olympic season with someone without experience.”
From volunteer to participant
Yet they chose Wiersma, who has to cancel her job as volunteer at the tournament in Dordrecht in the beginning of October. “I was supposed to take care of the boarding and I already sent my accreditation-picture”, she tells laughing. “That was just a holiday picture zoomed to my head. Bas van Weerden, who coordinates the volunteers during the World Cup, and who is also one of my trainers, already told me: “Now I need another picture, as a rider you need a professional one.””
Before the party in her own country starts, the World Cup selection heads to Budapest, where Wiersma once rode the Europe Cup-final. “That was of course a smaller event, but I know the ice and I’m very excited. I hope to learn a lot and to be able to use that in my own races. I want to go all out, skate well and enjoy of course.”
