Yibbi Jansen — The Dutch queen conquers Ranchi

Dreams come easily to children. Back in the early 2000s, fringe millennials thought it would be cool to grow up and search for Aladdin’s magic lamp. But it wouldn’t have taken them long to realise that, more often than not, wishes don’t get fulfilled.

Even the sensational Yibbi Jansen faced resistance when she told her family she wanted to pursue the sport, despite coming from Dutch hockey royalty.

Her father, Ronald, had won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, after winning bronze in Seoul 1988 with the Oranje. Ironically, it may have taken Yibbi longer to convince him than the national selectors.

Ronald wanted his daughter to take up football, like her two brothers. But she had made up her mind in 2012 while sitting beside the former goalkeeper in the stands of the Riverbank Arena in London, watching the Netherlands blow Great Britain away, winning by a 9-2 margin in the men’s hockey Olympic semifinal. The atmosphere was electric, the thrill unmatched. Yibbi started missing it from the very moment she left the United Kingdom. Her mother eventually played the role of Good Samaritan, helping to get Ronald on board with the idea.

Thus began a long and arduous journey. By the age of 15, Yibbi had already debuted for HC Den Bosch in the Hoofdklasse Dames, the highest level of club hockey in the Netherlands.

And in her very first season, she won the club championship. However, she made a surprise switch to mid-table side Oranje-Rood the following season, feeling that she couldn’t fully develop her skills at her previous club, which was filled with superstars.

Finally, on January 28, 2018, Yibbi earned her senior national cap. At that moment, she felt everything was falling into place. “When I was 18, I played for the Dutch team for the first time. In the first year, you love everything. You tend to enjoy everything,” she told Sportstar on the sidelines of the inaugural edition of the Women’s Hockey India League (HIL-W), where her services were acquired for a whopping Rs 29 lakh by Odisha Warriors. The bid made her the most expensive foreign player of HIL-W.

She began featuring consistently in the orange shirt thereafter. She played her first international tournament in China, where the Dutch team decimated the then Olympic gold medallist, Great Britain, 4-0 on its way to winning the Champions Trophy title. In 2019, she tasted success again, as the Dutch side won the first edition of the FIH Women’s Pro League.

She found herself between a rock and a hard place when her form dipped in the following months. Despite making the initial 22-member squad for the Tokyo Olympics, which was announced in 2019, she couldn’t board the flight to the pandemic-delayed Games in 2021.

“When the harder years came, I had a tough time merely getting selected for tournaments. I was not good enough at that time. They (the Netherlands) didn’t drop me, but it was worse that I wasn’t able to play despite being with them. That’s not a nice feeling. So later, I just decided to drop myself and take some time off. I always thought: ‘I’m gonna make it, but not for now’. I also got a mental coach whom I talked to from that moment. I think it helped me a lot. I still do it in both my bad and good times to keep up my stability,” she said.

When Paris came knocking, Yibbi was prepared. Not only did the Dutch team end up winning the gold medal, but individually also, Yibbi bagged the golden stick for having sounded the boards nine times.

“You would always want to perform better than you did before. Last year, I really enjoyed playing in the Olympics because that was always my dream. And winning the gold medal has been the highlight of my career. As an athlete, I was so happy, and I enjoyed that, but now it’s a new year and I have new goals. I want to perform well, and hopefully, it will be as good a year as the last one, or maybe better,” the FIH 2024 Player of the Year said.

 Yibbi Jansen was the joint top-scorer of the Women’s HIL, alongside JSW Soorma Hockey Club’s Charlotte Englebert, with five goals. 
| Photo Credit:
SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

She has, undoubtedly, started the season with a bang. The Warriors, led by Neha Goyal, won a historic title in the first edition of the only commercial women’s hockey league in the world. Yibbi added to her honour roll by becoming the joint top-scorer of the tournament, alongside JSW Soorma Hockey Club’s Charlotte Englebert, with five goals.

Sharing her thoughts on the tournament, Yibbi said it had been a learning curve for her. “I have enjoyed the experience of playing with girls from across the globe. The games were intense and close. The HIL is a good platform to ensure the future of Indian hockey is bright, allowing its girls to play matches at the highest level. The style of Indian players is very different from the ones I play with in the Netherlands. They are very skilled. They want to eliminate a player, while we are used to easy passing. I’ve learned to be open to different styles now,” she said.

She was, by a fair distance, the best drag-flicking exponent, having registered five of the 11 short corners that were converted in the entire tournament. At present, she is arguably also the best penalty corner specialist in the sport globally.

“I have changed a lot of things about my drag-flick since I started playing. I train the most with my drag-flick coach Toon Siepman (since her days at Oranje-Rood in 2016-17), and I practise four times a week when I’m on the field. I train a lot on it. There are times when you have to make a small addition or change a few things, and then the quality of the drag-flick suddenly goes a bit down. But in the end, it’s all about getting better at it,” the 25-year-old said.

Does Ronald also play a part in fine-tuning her technique at the dinner table? “Sometimes. We have the usual dad-and-daughter talk. Most of the time, it’s not about hockey because he has his own opinion, and I have mine. It can sometimes clash. But it’s nice to talk to someone who has experienced it all. However, the times are very different… He played hockey some 25 years ago.”

While Yibbi has traced her father’s footsteps in her professional career, she understands that many little girls from even the most obscure corners of India would want to follow in her footsteps. She said, “First, I was just a young player looking up to other girls, and now I’ve come to the position where girls look up to me. But hopefully, I give them some of my experience and teach them some useful skills. I did, for example, do some drag-flicking with Annu (22-year-old India and Warriors forward). It’s just nice that you can give them some tips. Hopefully, they get their sense of it and make the Indian team later.”

Yibbi, meanwhile, draws inspiration from everyone around her. “I like to watch other athletes as well, not just hockey players. From football, I like (Lionel) Messi, for example, but every other person can inspire you. If you read a book or just watch someone performing day in and day out, every week, every game… it’s just so inspiring.”

As Yibbi continues to tick off milestones one after another, there’s little doubt as to where Aladdin’s magic lamp resides right now.