[Nicky91]

Former figure skater Joan Haanappel has passed away at the age of 83.

Haanappel was born in The Hague in 1940 and, together with Sjoukje Dijkstra, put figure skating on the map in the Netherlands in the 1950s and 1960s. Thanks to the successes of 'Sjoukje and Joan', figure skating became a popular television sport in our country.

The Hague Haanappel was known for her style and suppleness. She became Dutch champion four times in a row (1955-1958) and won three bronze medals at the European Championships (1958-1960).

Haanappel competed in the Olympics twice; In 1956 she finished thirteenth and in 1960 she finished in fifth place.

Ice revue and commentator
After the 1960 World Championships, Haanappel put an end to her professional sports career, but she remained active on the ice. Haanappel joined the Wiener IJsrevue and became a professional soloist at the leading ice show.

When her show career came to an end, she became a commentator for the NOS and later for Eurosport.

In 2006 she also joined the general board of the skating federation KNSB, but resigned after two years. According to Haanappel, the KNSB paid too much attention to long track speed skating and not enough to figure skating.

she also was a judge more recently in our version of Dancing On Ice



she died in a hospital in Leuven, Belgium


https://nos.nl/artikel/2510192-oud-k...l-83-overleden
i translated from this dutch article using bing translate, couldn't find a english artictle

[Gusto Brunt]

RIP.