Wilhelmus Christiaan Franciscus "Willy" van Bladel (born 26 March 1960 in

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,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 ) , 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 represented his country at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. With Huub Lambriex as crew, Van Bladel took the 11th place in the

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

. At the 1988 Olympics in

Pusan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

Van Bladel made his second appearance in the Olympic regattas with his brother

Cees van Bladel Cornelis Wilhelmus Nicolaas "Cees" van Bladel (born 2 May 1962 in Eindhoven) is a sailor from the Netherlands, who represented his country at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Pusan. With his older brother Willy van Bladel as crew, Van Bladel took ...

as crew. They took 9th place.

Sailing career

After sailing Vaurien and

470 __NOTOC__ Year 470 ( CDLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Iordanes (or, less frequently, year 1223 '' ...

with his brother

Van Bladel then moved into the

Professional life

Van Bladel studied BBA, Business Administration at the Nyenrode University (1978–1981). He nowadays is owner of the company ''Hoblad b.v.''. Since 2007, Wil is head coach of the Flemish Olympic team (VYF). He is the primary coach of

Evi Van Acker Evi Van Acker (born 23 September 1985) is a Belgian professional sailor. She has a Bachelor in Chemistry and is currently studying for a Master in bio-engineering. Career Van Acker started sailing at age 7 in an Optimist dinghy and soon starte ...

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1960 births Living people Sportspeople from Eindhoven Dutch male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sailors at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Tornado Olympic sailors for the Netherlands Vaurien class sailors 20th-century Dutch people {{Netherlands-yachtracing-bio-stub