Sijtje van der Lende

Sijtje van der Lende (born 31 January 1950) is a former speed skater from the Netherlands and a skating coach. She competed at the 1976 and 1980 Winter Olympics in all distances from 500 to 3000 m. Her best achievement was ninth place in the 3000 m in 1976.[1][2]

Sijtje van der Lende

Sijtje van de Lende in 1976
Personal information
Born	(1950-01-31) 31 January 1950 Sonnega, Netherlands
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	66 kg (146 lb)
Sport
Sport	Speed skating

She won the national allround title in 1976 and 1977 and finished in third place in 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1980.[2]

Personal bests:[1]

• 500 m – 43.66 (1980)
• 1000 m – 1:25.86 (1980)
• 1500 m – 2:12.59 (1979)
• 3000 m – 4:39.15 (1977)
• 5000 m – 8:25.3 (1982)

After retirement she worked as a skating coach with various teams in the Netherlands, and in 1994 became the first female national coach. Her last professional speedskatingteam was VPZ (2005-2008). From 2008 till the Olympic winter games at Vancouver in 2010 she works with the national team of China. [3] At the moment she's advisor for Topteam North Netherlands, a group of talented young speed skaters in this district.