Netherlands Antilles at The 2004 Summer Olympics - Background

Background

The Netherlands Antilles were a union of five Caribbean islands–Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten–that, together, constituted a portion of the Realm of the Netherlands alongside the Netherlands themselves and Aruba and held approximately 200,000 residents. The political power of the Dutch colonies was centered at Willemstad, the capital of both Curaçao and of the Netherlands Antilles. The first Dutch Antilean delegation to compete was an eleven-man team that arrived at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Excluding 1956 and 1980, athletes from the Netherlands Antilles had participated at all twelve summer games between 1952 and 2004. It had additionally competed at the Winter Olympics of 1988 and 1992. The first female Dutch Antilean Olympians competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and had only appeared sporadically between then and 2004 with the exception of in 1984, when female athletes comprised the majority of the Dutch Antilean delegation. The Netherlands Antilles experienced its greatest diversity of athletes at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, when athletes participated in six different sports.

There had been a single medalist from the Netherlands Antilles–Jan Boersma, a sailor, won the silver medal in his event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Up to and including the Athens games, there have been no other medalists from the Dutch colonies. Three male athletes comprised the Dutch Antilean delegation at the Athens Olympics–Geronimo Goeloe and Churandy Martina in track events, and Eddy Stibbe in equestrianism. Martina carried the flag of the Netherlands Antilles at the ceremonies.