What’s the best way to study and be a an athlete?
By: Rebecca Van Erkelens
Tags: Careers, Amsterdam, Sports, Students, Startup

From being a premature baby to a national champion. Sanne Veldkamp was born at 26 weeks and thus had to fight for her life. This, however, later in life never stopped her from chasing her dreams and doing sports to her full potential. This resulted that she as a professional athlete contributes to educating others about premature babies and what kind of consequences this has in later life.

Throughout her youth, Sanne has always been an active child, from trying all different sports when she was younger to exploring the world in a sporty way. Because of the influence of both of her sporty parents, Sanne discovered her love of squash and sports business. When she was 18, she started the international Sports Management and Business (ISMB) program at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. This led her to gain experience in the field through various internships. Sanne now has international experience not only through her high-performance sport, but at professional organisations as well in both the UK and the USA.

Sanne Veldkamp has quite an extraordinary and inspiring story to share with us. Enjoy reading, and Sanne, thank you for your time!

Sanne, can you share with us your professional and academic background?

Throughout my youth I played various sports, such as field hockey, tennis, swimming and gymnastics. When I was 12, I started playing squash because of my Dad, who was also my coach. We both were very motivated to get far and thus started to train in the early mornings before my school, as well as after. I won my first national title when I was 15 and this summer I reached my highest ranking of 94 and a place in the top 100 of the world!

After completing my high school and taking a gap year to focus on my squash, I was looking for a course to combine my passion for sports and business in one. Therefore I chose International Sports, Management and Business at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. What drew me towards this course was the international aspect and the internship opportunities. I’m currently doing my graduation internship at House of Esports in Rotterdam and I just came back from my 4th year strategic internship at MSquash in Port Chester, NY.

Being an Athlete, What are the biggest comparisons with high-performance sport and the sport business industry?

I think what helps me is that I have a huge drive to do well, and I set the standards high for myself. Just as in sport, the harder you work and the better you take care of yourself the better your results will be. Business is hard work, but it doesn’t do well for you if you don’t rest and take a break once in a while. You have to stay motivated and set goals to do better each day. Above all I think you have to enjoy what you do, cause then it doesn’t feel like you have to work at all!

You are Dutch but have experience in multiple other countries, like your work with several squash organisations in the UK and the USA. Why did you decide to go international?

I decided to go international to challenge myself and see how I would function in different countries. I was lucky that those organisations are native English so I didn’t struggle that much with the language barrier. I did struggle however with the cultural aspect, more than I would’ve thought in the beginning. You learn to appreciate your own culture and country more and also see the positives of how other countries work.

You are helping SteunEmma, a charity which aims to make the experience better for hospitalised children, which is close to your heart, as you were premature. Why do you think it is important for high-performance athletes to be involved with charities?

I think that as a high-performance athlete you challenge yourself to be better each day. You get to do what you love day in day out, and I think you learn a lot about yourself. To give back and be involved with charities to share that is important because you need people to support you as well. No one gets to their goals by themselves.

Currently, you are working for CourtPerformance. Can you explain to our audience what is about?

CourtPerformance is the distributor of interactiveSQUASH and the multiBALL in the BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg). This is an interactive wall that is designed to play games on with any type of ball possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBM06CZd2Uo

This gamification of sports is a huge thing at the moment and I strongly believe in this product. It makes the threshold to play sports so much lower and people enjoy themselves a lot when they play on the court. I can combine my internship at House of Esports with this perfectly, as they want to develop their GameGym and include the multiBALL in their concept to get more people to move. As they say sitting is the new smoking and I think we have to urge people to move more!

What are 3 tips that you have for other sports management students who want to gain experience abroad?

I think the best thing you have to do is find something you’re passionate about, and don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. Next to that you have to do research about the country you are going to, and go there with no expectations. Time flies by and before you know it you’re back home again with this amazing experience and personal growth. The last tip is to get Rebtel, this is an app where you can call back home unlimited for $10 (in my case) and it’s really nice to be able to call back home and keep in touch with your family and friends.

Do you think having professional sports experience helps you in the management industry?

I think it helps me a lot. I’m used to planning ahead, prioritizing work, and to find solutions if things don’t go that well. I think it’s a good skill set to rely on! The only thing I have to take into account is that people don’t always have the same mindset as I have, and that you need to be able to work with a lot of different personalities. That’s why ISMB was a good choice since we got to practice that early on 😉

A final message to our audience?

Enjoy what you do, and sometimes look back to see how far you’ve come. Also, don’t compare your own results to anyone else since everyone develops at their own pace!