Sjoerd Steven Vollebregt (born 10 December 1954, 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 wi ...
) is a
sailor
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
from the Netherlands who represented his native country at the
1976 Summer Olympics
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 P ...
in
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between To ...
.
With twin brother
Erik Vollebregt as helmsman, Vollebregt finished 14th in the
Sailing at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Flying Dutchman. Since in
1980 the Netherlands
boycotted
A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...
the Moscow Olympics, Vollebregt represented
his National Olympic Committee under the Dutch
NOC flag in the
Flying Dutchman
The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Du ...
. Again with his brother as helmsman, he took 7th place.
After the 1980 Olympics Vollebregt started a new Olympic campaign for the
1984 Olympics crewing in the
Soling
The Soling is an open keelboat that holds the World Sailing "International class" status. The class was used from the 1972 Olympics (Kiel) until the 2000 Olympics (Sydney) as " Open Three Person Keelboat". Besides the Olympic career of the Soli ...
together with
Gijs Evers and his older brother
Peter Vollebregt as helmsman but finally failed to qualify.
Controversions
* 1976:
:During the selection for the
Dutch Olympic Sailing Team for the
1976 Olympics a controversy
emerged between twelve sailors and the
selection committee chaired by
André du Pon.
Fred Imhoff and
Heike Blok, two sailors hoping to be selected, filed suit, arguing that
Frieda Vollebergt,
the communications person for the sailing team, was partial: as mother of Erik, Sjoerd, and
Peter Vollebregt, all candidates for the 1976 Olympic sailing event, she was accused for having a bias towards her children. In the end
Imhoff and Blok lost the
lawsuit and were removed from the 1976 selection.
During this period Vollebregt's father,
Jan Vollebregt, was president of the
Koninklijk Nederlands Watersport Verbond (Dutch Yacht Racing Union).
* 1980:
:Several countries
did
boycott the
1980 Summer Olympics, others like
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
did not go since they found the competition devaluated. As result only half of the expected fleet was present during the Olympic regattas.
Further reading
1976 Olympics (Kingston)
*
*
*
1980 Olympics (Tallinn)
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vollebregt, Sjoerd
Living people
1954 births
Sportspeople from Leiden
Dutch male sailors (sport)
470 class world champions
Soling class sailors
Sailors at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Flying Dutchman
Sailors at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Flying Dutchman
Olympic sailors of the Netherlands
Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for the Netherlands
World champions in sailing for the Netherlands