By ANP··Amended:
RTL
Tasa Jiya languished a bit in the Olympic village. The sprinter had to compete in the 200 meters early at the Games in Paris, so she left the training camp of the Dutch athletics team in Liévin, France, much earlier. “I notice, now that I am alone in an Olympic village without my teammates from the sprint team, how much they have helped me in the past period. It has been quite a rollercoaster this season and then it is nice to always have people around you. I do miss my girlfriends.”
The athlete from Amsterdam got a taste of the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 when she was 18. She was a reserve in the relay team and did not have to compete. “Rio is a black hole, I just don’t remember anything about it. Here in Paris I walked through the village with tears in my eyes. I had a pretty difficult run-up with a lot of pain. I was sick and it didn’t go well. So when I arrived here, I thought: my god, I did it. How cool and fun. I really enjoyed it.”
Until the day before her first match. “Suddenly it grabbed me by the throat and I thought shit, tomorrow is the day, we’re going to start. From then on the nerves got the better of me. I couldn’t sleep either.” Strangely enough, the full Stade de France calmed her down before the start of the series. “When I walked onto the court I saw all those orange stains on the stands and people were waving. It was bizarre. It overwhelmed me so much that I couldn’t think of anything else. It made the voice in my head a bit quieter.”
Satisfied with the outcome of the series, Jiya can now prepare for the semi-finals on Monday evening. “I am seeded 24th, so I shouldn’t do anything crazy. I think that if I can put down my best race, I can be happy anyway.”
