Op Kracht en Karakter (On Strength and Character)

Always wanting to be the best, because everything is a competition. Your life revolves around being just that little bit better than the other. You want to be on number 1and she’s next. You’re just a bit faster, just a little stronger, just a little more tactical by training better, eating smarter, having more focus, putting more aside and having even more willpower. Because you have what it takes to make it to that top. By doing the right thing at the right time… but what is the right thing at what time?

Dutch women in top sport know that everything is a competition, that the podium is a merciless temptation until there is someone else number one. And when the other is in your place, you have to move on, without that stage, wean the addictive adrenaline and find your place somewhere else. As yourself, the woman you are, with those special qualities that have brought you this far. As the woman who might also want to be a mother, the woman who can be vulnerable and who wants to make a career off the stage. Without competition. Without winning and without losing.

Laura de Mildt made portraits of these Dutch top women who give and have given everything for the sport. For that first place, for the win. And who are above all women.