Medal winner Sifan Hassan may sometimes struggle with her words during an interview in Dutch, but she is still more Dutch than Max Verstappen!
Runner Sifan Hassan is very busy with the Olympic Games this year. She does that for the Netherlands, but sometimes there is still criticism about that, Sifan is from Ethiopia but came to the Netherlands as a child. And now she is also more often in America than the Netherlands because she lives there, so many people have something to say about that!
Sifan Hassan receives a lot of criticism but also many positive reactions
The question recently came up on the Dutch section of Reddit: “Can you cheer for Sifan Hassan at the Olympics? He barely speaks Dutch and lives in America.”
And to the question of this anonymous user, many different answers have been given that give a nice cross-section of what the Dutch think of such a ‘foreign’ lady running in an orange shirt. It is of course not new that Sifan stands out with her accent, and that she does not speak Dutch very well. People also criticize the fact that she is actually never in the Netherlands because of training abroad. Fortunately, there are still a lot of Dutch people who are very happy with this great athlete.
“Absolutely. She’s amazing and just trying all those distances is very special. And if she does well, that’s extra fun of course.”, “You can just cheer for the great athlete that she is. Don’t make it so difficult.” in “Yes, I cheer for her. She has Dutch nationality, so for me she is Dutch. I also think that she can play for other countries, but she consciously chooses the Netherlands, so I think she feels most Dutch herself.”
Sifan Hassan is more Dutch than Max Verstappen
Runner Sifan Hassan will surely enjoy seeing all the positive reactions as it is a change from all the criticism she normally gets! Someone even says: “She has lived in the Netherlands longer than Max Verstappen!” Which is also true because Max Verstappen’s mother is Belgian, which is why Max lived there for a long time, and now he lives in Monaco, so why wouldn’t you cheer for Sifan if it is possible for Max Verstappen? Sifan has also always indicated that she would like to grow old in the Netherlands. In any case, Sifan will always feel most Dutch, and she doesn’t always need the Dutch language for that. Isn’t that great!
