Dumoulin, Van der Breggen and Ligtlee nominated for Dutch sports awards

Image 1 of 6

Tom Dumoulin, Anna van der Breggen and Elis Ligtlee have all been nominated for the Netherlands Olympic Federation*Netherlands Sports Federation (NOF*NSF) sportsman and sportswoman of the year awards.

All three have had extremely successful seasons and walked away with at least one medal at the Rio Olympic Games.

Van der Breggen left Brazil with two medals after claiming victory in the road race and bronze in the time trial behind Kristin Armstrong. She followed that up a month later with the European road race title and a silver in the time trial. The start of the season brought her a second consecutive Fleche Wallonne victory and success at the Salverda Omloop van de Ijsseldelta. A heavy crash at the Aviva Women’s Tour disrupted her Olympics build-up but she bounced back to finish third at the Giro Rosa.

Dumoulin took silver in the Olympic time trial, despite suffering a broken wrist at the Tour de France just a few weeks earlier.

The Dutchman won two stages of the Tour before his accident.The first came in a dramatic stage to Andorra where he attacked from a breakaway group and arrived solo in a torrential downpour. He went on to win the first individual time trial at Le Caverne de Pont d'Arc, beating Chris Froome by over a minute. Earlier in the season, Dumoulin edged out a win in the Giro d’Italia’s prologue, giving him a lengthy stint in the pink jersey, and had looked like the favourite to win the Chianti time trial before saddle sore affected his performance and later forced him to quit the Italian race.

22-year-old Ligtlee took a surprise victory in the women's Keirin in Rio ahead of Becky James and Anna Meares. She also won a string of titles at the under 23 European track championships in July and bronze in the 500 metre time trial at the World Championships in March.

In the men’s competition, Dumoulin will go up against formula one driver Max Verstappen, who became the youngest driver to win a Grand Prix earlier this year, sailor Dorian van Rysselberghe, who won gold in the RS:X category, 10km open water Olympic Champion Ferry Weertman and speed skating star Sven Kramer.

In the women’s competition, van der Breggen and Ligtlee face 10km open water gold medallist Sharon Van Rouwendaal, sailor Marit Bouwmeester, who won gold in the laser radial, gymnast Sanne Wevers, and 200m runner Dafne Schippers.

The awards will be handed out in a ceremony on Wednesday, December 21.