Nicole van der Velden (born 26 October 1994 in Madrid) is a Spanish- Aruban sailor. She was born Aruban, but received the Spanish nationality by the Spanish government in 2019. She competed at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

in the Nacra 17 race with

Thijs Visser Thijs Visser (born October 19, 1989) is an Aruban sailing (sport), sailor. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the Sailing at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Nacra 17, Nacra 17 race with Nicole van der Velden; the two placed 16th. References

; they won two races and placed 16th in the final standings. She was the flag bearer for

Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...

in the Parade of Nations. She campaigned a 49er FX towards the

2020 Tokyo Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

and is presently campaigning an IQ Foil windsurfer towards the

2024 Olympic Games ) , nations = TBA , athletes = 10,500 ''(quota limit)'' , events = 329 in 32 sports (48 disciplines) , opening = 26 July 2024 , closing = 11 August 2024 , opened_by = , stadium = Stade de France Jardins du Trocadéro and River Seine , summer ...

. Originally from Noord,

, Van Der Velden was born in Madrid to a Dutch father and a

Venezuelan Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

mother. She took up sailing in 2008 following her father Martin, who worked as a technical officer with the Aruba Sailing Association. She speaks four languages fluently:

Papiamento Papiamento () or Papiamentu (; nl, Papiaments) is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean. It is the most widely spoken language on the Caribbean ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), with official status in Arub ...

, Dutch, Spanish and English.

References

External links

* * * 1994 births Living people Aruban female sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Aruba Sailors at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Nacra 17 Sailors at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics {{Aruba-yachtracing-bio-stub