8 August 2008

Olympic fever kicks off
The 2008 Olympics are splashed all over today’s Dutch newspapers as the Beijing Games kicked off in Beijing on Friday. The orange-clad Dutch contingent, snapped at Thursday’s official welcome ceremony, beam out at the reader from the front pages of NRC Handelsblad and De Telegraaf.

AD gets straight down to business by listing the Netherlands' medal hopes on its front page. They include the women's hockey team, swimmer Marleen Veldhuis and dressage champion Anky van Grunsven and her horse Salinero.

"Eight gold medals within reach" the paper trumpets "Of course, we're going to make the top ten on the medals table!" Though they do end up by asking - "or are we being too optimistic?"

It must be said the Games haven't got off to a terribly auspicious start for the Netherlands. For scheduling reasons, the Dutch football team went into action a day ahead of the opening ceremony, but could do no better than a lacklustre goalless draw against Nigeria.

All the papers seem to agree on why.

"Overcome by the heat" exclaims De Telegraaf. "Footballers struggle in greenhouse" bemoans AD, adding that "under conditions this tough, it's impossible to play a decent match".

National coach Foppe de Haan concurs: "It was an oven in there - unbelievable!" Head of the Dutch delegation Charles van Commenée is looking on the bright side, however: "With a healthy dose of smog to keep the sun off, we'll be fine."

Amsterdam Games of 1928
Trouw opts for an Olympic flashback to the Amsterdam Games of 1928, which it proudly proclaims became "a model for the rest".

However, the paper reveals that it's a miracle the games were held in the Netherlands at all. In Queen Wilhelmina, the country had "a monarch with no sympathy whatsoever for sport in general and the Games in particular".

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