Minke Bisschops

Happy birthday to the Netherlands’ sprinter Minke Bisschops, an Olympic finalist, a European medallist and the second-fastest Dutch woman in history over 100m.

Minke’s 11.05 from 2025 won her the Dutch national title and put her behind exactly one Dutchwoman ever over the distance. She has run 22.39 for 200m and 7.10 indoors over 60m, and she has won the Dutch indoor 60m title in both 2025 and 2026, taking the most recent one in Apeldoorn in 7.17.

The relay is where it gets serious. In Rome in 2024 she was part of the Dutch 4x100m quartet that won European bronze alongside Nadine Visser, Marije van Hunenstijn and Tasa Jiya. That summer in Paris the same event took her to an Olympic final. And in June 2025, at the European Team Championships in Madrid, the Dutch four ran 42.02 for a national record, which for a country of seventeen million with a proud sprinting tradition is a genuinely big afternoon. This August she was back in a European 4x100m final in Birmingham.

Sprint relays are the cruellest team event in sport, because the fastest four do not necessarily win. Three baton changes decide it, and the whole thing runs on trust built over years of standing in the same lane doing the same drill. The Dutch women have built one of the best in Europe, and Minke has a hand in every leg of it.

Van harte gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag, Minke! Lang zal ze leven, in de gloria, hieperdepiep hoera. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇳🇱