Floris Jan Bovelander (born 19 January 1966) is a former

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, who was a member of the Dutch national squad that won the gold medal at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

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. Six years earlier, at the

Hockey World Cup The Men's FIH Hockey World Cup is an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The tournament was started in 1971. It is held every four years, bridging the four years between the Summer O ...

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, where he scored nine times, he won the world title with the Dutch side at the expense of host nation

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Professional athlete

Bovelander was born in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

, and made his debut for the Netherlands national team on Wednesday, 2 October 1985, in a friendly match against

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resulting in a 3–1 win, and went on to play 241 international games, scored 215 goals, and participated in three Olympics. He was famous for his devastating

penalty corner In field hockey, a penalty corner, sometimes known as a short corner, is a penalty given against the defending team. It is predominantly awarded for a defensive infringement in the '' penalty circle'' or for a deliberate infringement within the de ...

s, and was nicknamed ''Flop'', ''Floppie'' and ''Boem Boem Bovelander''. He played his last game for the Netherlands in the 1996 Olympic Hockey Final in Alanta. Thanks in particular to two penalty corners from 'the cannon with the angel's face', the Netherlands won the Olympic title at the expense of

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, 3–1. Earlier, he took all the bronze medal at the Olympics in 1988 in

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and was fourth at the 1992 Olympics in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. During the

Men's FIH Hockey World Cup The Men's FIH Hockey World Cup is an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The tournament was started in 1971. It is held every four years, bridging the four years between the Summer ...

, in 1990, Bovelander was played a pivotal role in winning the world title with nine goals, a significant improvement on his first World Cup in 1986 in London, where the Dutch hockey team finished seventh. The third World Cup in which Bovelander participated was the hockey world championship (1994) in Sydney. The team lost the final after penalties from Pakistan. In 1987, Bovelander won gold with the Dutch hockey team at the

EuroHockey Nations Championship The EuroHockey Nations Championship is an international men's field hockey competition organised by the European Hockey Federation (EHF) for the top eight European national teams. It is the top division of the EuroHockey Nations Championships. Th ...

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. Four years later, he picked up a silver at the European Championship in

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. His seventeen goals during that tournament are still the highest number scored by a single player during a European Championship tournament. Bovelander, nicknamed Flop, Floppie or Boem Boem, spent his entire career (fifteen seasons) with

HC Bloemendaal Hockey Club Bloemendaal (), commonly known as Bloemendaal, is a Dutch field hockey club based in Bloemendaal, North Holland. It was established on 26 April 1895, and is one of the oldest field hockey clubs in the Netherlands. Originally, the club a ...

, the club with which he won the Dutch league title six times, one indoor title and one

EuroHockey Club Champions Cup The EuroHockey Club Champions Cup is a defunct men's field hockey competition for clubs in Europe. It was first played for in 1974. It was replaced by the Euro Hockey League in 2007. Unofficial tournaments were played in 1969 and then in 1970, ...

in 1987. With a tally of 276 goals he was, for many years, the top scorer in the Dutch Hockey League until he was overtaken on the 6 November 2011 by

Roderick Weusthof Roderick Weusthof (born 18 May 1982 in Nijmegen) is a field hockey player from the Netherlands. Weusthof was part of the Dutch national team for the 2004 Champions Trophy in Lahore where the Dutch won the silver medal. In 2005 in Chennai they ...

and later by

Taeke Taekema Taeke Wiebe Doekes Taekema (born 14 January 1980) is a Dutch field hockey player and drag flicker (penalty corner specialist) who won the silver medal with the national squad at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Born in Leiderdorp, he made hi ...

Post-sports career

After his hockey career, Bovelander completed his biology studies, but remained active in hockey. Among other things, Bovelander was a member of the top sport committee of HC Bloemendaal for five years, and more than a year under the national coach Joost Bellaart (2001–2004) for the national team as manager and assistant trainer. Bovelander studied medical biology in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, but nowadays mainly earns a living as an organiser of hockey camps and clinics, youth and corporate events. The company that he runs together with his brother Jeroen is called Bovelander & Bovelander. He also wrote a weekly column in the free daily newspaper ''

De Pers ''De Pers'' (literal translation: ''The Press'') was a freely distributed Dutch language tabloid newspaper in the Netherlands, with a circulation of around 200,000. Its competitors were ''Metro'' and ''Sp!ts ''Spits'' (; en, Peak/Rush Hour; s ...

''. Bovelander is also active as an ambassador for Right To Play. He started Bovelander Hockey Academy in Netherlands, which is notably also the technical partner of

Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre (ONTH-HPC) is a professional field hockey institute located at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. It was launched on 13 August 2019 after Government of Odisha, Tata Steel & Tata Trusts ...

situated in

Kalinga Stadium The Kalinga Stadium is a multi-purpose International stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Its foundation stone was laid by former chief minister of Odisha Late Biju Patnaik in 1978. It is the home ground of the I League Club Indian Arrows si ...

Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango trees (''ekamra'')). Bhubaneswar is ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

References

External links

*
Dutch Hockey Federation

Bovelander & Bovelander

Odisha Naval Tata Hockey HPC official website
1966 births Living people Dutch male field hockey players Olympic field hockey players of the Netherlands Field hockey players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Haarlem Olympic gold medalists for the Netherlands Olympic bronze medalists for the Netherlands Olympic medalists in field hockey Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics HC Bloemendaal players 1990 Men's Hockey World Cup players {{Netherlands-fieldhockey-bio-stub