‘Proud father' Jacques Brinkman lauds son Thierry's leadership in earning long-awaited Dutch glory

Kolkata: This Father's Day will be quite special for Jacques Brinkman. It's not every year that your son wins a gold medal at the Olympics and his son Thierry did exactly that at the Paris Games when he led the Netherlands hockey team to a gold — a first after 25 years.
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Incidentally, the last time the Dutch side won the gold at the Sydney Olympics, Jacques played a pivotal role as they beat South Korea in the final via penalty shoot-outs. But seeing his son lead the team to the top of the podium after beating Germany in the final was something even more special for Jacques.
"It was fantastic to see your child achieve the highest possible goal in sports. Being surrounded by all the family and friends made it unbelievable.
After the winning shoot-out, when they secured the gold medal, there were definitely tears — happy tears," said Jacques, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, during an exclusive interview with TOI.
While Jacques did have a huge influence on Thierry becoming a hockey player, he took a step back after a while and left it to the coaches to train him properly. "I helped out until Thierry was about 14 or 15. After that, I stepped back to support my other children — Tim and Julie.
Thierry is the oldest, so I was more involved in his early years, but then shifted focus as they grew," he added.
Whatever he did worked wonders and Jacques is extremely more than proud of what Thierry has become today. "I'm a proud father, of course, but his leadership as a captain is something special. During the celebrations in the Netherlands, Thierry gave a speech to his teammates, and it really showed how naturally he leads," he added.
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Jacques was also impressed with the way Thierry handled the situation following the Olympic final when a brawl broke out after Duco Telgenkamp of the Netherlands scored past German keeper Jean-Paul Danneberg and performed a shushing gesture in his face, before appearing to slap his helmet.
Besides his performance for the national team, Jacques also followed his son's exploits in the Hockey India League where Thierry played for the Kalinga Lancers.
While Lancers failed to make it to the knockouts, Jacques is quite hopeful that the tournament will certainly change the landscape of Indian hockey in the coming years.
"The difference between top teams is very small. Winning two Olympic bronzes is a fantastic achievement. India have great players like Harmanpreet Singh, who's excellent with penalty corners. Their goalkeeper (PR Sreejesh) retired recently, which is always a big change. But they're definitely back at the top. The Hockey India League has helped with that," added Brinkman senior.
While many believe that will indeed be the case, for now, all eyes are on the World Cup set to take place in the Netherlands and Belgium in a year's time — where Jacques is hopeful of yet another Dutch victory.

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