Sanne in ‘t Hof Returns to Jumbo-Visma Skating Team, Brings Hope for Olympic Gold: Updates and Details

After a season with disappointing results, the Jumbo-Visma skating team is working on reforming this spring. The latest addition is an old acquaintance: after five years, Sanne in ‘t Hof returns to Jac Orie’s team.

Since her departure from Orie, In ‘t Hof has ridden for the Friesland regional selection and last season for Johan de Wit’s international Gold Team.

The long-distance expert says the switch gives her a lot of peace of mind. “In the last years I had to organize a lot of things myself in terms of funding and training. With this team it’s all very well organised.”

In ‘t Hof’s players achieved great success last season under the guidance of De Wit, but they themselves did not make any progress, partly due to injuries.

“I wasn’t that good at training with women like Takagi either. The Japanese way of training is just different from mine. Johan also didn’t plan to keep going with me and we parted ways.”

At Jumbo she joins a team that… significantly updated after nine skaters left at this time. In ‘t Hof, seventh in the 5,000 meters at the 2022 Games, is now the third reinforcement for this season of Orie’s top team. It was previously announced that sprinter Isabel Grevelt and Belgian Mathias Vosté will be her teammates.

And new scalers were needed for the yellow-black creation. As Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong and Jorrit Bergsma chose to move to another team, Thomas Krol ended his career and the contracts of six other skaters were not extended.

Orie said goodbye to In ‘t Hof in 2019, saying that he could not start her, but said at the time that he would not rule out future collaborations. “It’s good to see that Sanne has improved a lot in recent years. During our talks I saw her dedication and commitment.”

These talks also left In’t Hof with a good feeling. “We clicked again straight away and I’m now going into the team very differently than when I left five years ago. I’ve been competing in the Games already and learned a lot about myself. Then I came to learn and now to win.”

“She has already appeared on the national stage several times and I am sure she has the ability to rise to the top at a global level. We will do everything we can to make that happen,” said the coach.

In ‘t Hof hopes to qualify for the Olympic Games for the second time at Jumbo-Visma. “No one could be there at the first one in China. Now in Italy I hope.” The next two seasons will be dedicated to the Olympic 5,000 meters with gold as the goal.

The question remains what the rest of the team will be like this season. No agreement has yet been signed with Jutta Leerdam and Kai Verbij for next season.