Paris 2024: Jennette Jansen hopes to write another chapter of a legendary career
Dutch Para cyclist Jennette Jansen is set to compete at Paris 2024, 36 years after she made her Paralympic debut 12 Aug 2024
Dutch athlete Jennette Jansen has written a story like no other. When she won the H1-4 cycling road race at Tokyo 2020, aged 53, it came 33 years after her first Paralympic gold medals, on the track at Seoul 1988 in the 800m, 1500m and 3000m.
In total, she has bagged 10 Paralympic medals, across three sports – Para athletics, wheelchair basketball and Para cycling. What keeps her going?
“I don’t want to do half things – I like to win, and I still like to do sports, I want to do it every day,” said Jansen, now 56. “After Athens I stopped my career in basketball, and took an eight-year break. So when I came back for Rio, I was looking forward to doing something for myself again, individual events were very attractive.
“Sports give you the opportunity to travel, to meet a lot of people, but also to develop yourself. Even if you are coping well with your handicap, you learn from meeting people, seeing different areas. It makes you better in every way. It is the highest thing you can achieve, to become a Paralympic champion."
🚴♀️ #ChangeStartsWithSport: Jennette Jansen's Path to Success "Sport Makes You Better" 🏅
Three sports, three chapters
Jansen’s career has been one of three chapters. “I am a double amputee, I have had this disability from young age,” she said. “I was born with not developed legs, and when I was nine, they amputated both so I could walk with prosthetics.”
She was soon one of the fastest Para athletes around. Aged 20, she cleaned up on the Seoul track. Then at Barcelona 1992, she challenged herself to transition to longer distances, getting silver in the 5000m and marathon, and bronze in the 1500m.
“After that, I switched to wheelchair basketball,” she said. “I was looking to share the pressure with teammates, so basketball was a good change. You are on the field with more girls, so if you don’t play well they can change you. In an individual sport you have to do it all by yourself.”
It was a good decision: with her natural athleticism to the fore, Jansen excelled in the Dutch team, picking up the silver medal at Atlanta 1996.
She was ready for a break, but eventually Para cycling – a huge sport in the Netherlands – came calling. “I wanted to do an individual sport again, I tried hand cycling and I liked it very much,” she said.
“I like most the speed of racing, the downhill parts. When you go up, it is very hard work. Holland is a flat country; we don’t have many hills. Coming back for Rio felt like a first experience again – I had missed being in the Paralympics.”
Jansen got bronze in the road race.
After three Paralympics where she had made podiums but not won gold, Tokyo 2020 would mark her return to the summit of Para sport. She won the road race and got bronze in the time trial. “I think Tokyo was the best moment of my career,” she said.
“It was the biggest challenge I faced. There was Covid, the pressure, it was far from home and different from Europe. It was a strange environment with the virus, but even though the atmosphere wasn’t there, without family, the memories are very special.”
Another milestone in a storied career
Now she is bidding to retain her title. At the 2023 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, she picked up both road race and time trial gold medals.
“I did very well. For the mindset it is very good. Paris is so close to home, it almost feels like home,” she said.
“I hope there will be a lot of spectators from Holland, it gives you extra energy. Paris is already a beautiful, romantic city. I’m looking forward to how they will make it even more beautiful. They will organise it the best they can, and I think it will be amazing.”
Jansen credits her family, and in particular her partner, with enabling her sporting longevity. “If you don’t have the support at home, I think it’s very difficult to do this on high level every day,” she said.
“You have to have a strong mind, but when you get to the podium, you can think about how hard a year was, and really enjoy that moment.
“My family is very important, especially my partner, who goes to a lot of tournaments with me. The clock is ticking for Paris now.”
And the favourite memory of her legendary career?
“The medals in Korea were very special because I was young and inexperienced,” she said.
“But I think my medals from Para cycling are the most beautiful,” she said, as she aims to write another chapter in her story.
Discover more about Para cycling and the 22 sports in the Paris 2024 Paralympic sports programme
