Approximately 5 million of the 17 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two thirds of the population older than 15 years participates in sports weekly.
Servaas "Faas" Wilkes was a Dutch football forward, who earned a total of 38 caps for the Netherlands national team, in which he scored 35 goals. However, for a prolonged period of his career, June 1949 through till March 1955, he was banned from the national team since the KNVB did not allow professional players to participate. He also played for the Netherlands at the 1948 Summer Olympics.
Phillip Ross Burrows is a field hockey player from New Zealand, who earned his first cap for the national team, nicknamed The Black Sticks, in January 2000. The striker is New Zealand's top field goal scorer and was named 2003 New Zealand Player of the Year.
Robert Adriaan van der Horst is a Dutch former field hockey player who played as a defender and currently the assistant coach of the first men's team of Oranje-Rood.
Sohail Abbas, is a former professional field hockey player from Pakistan who played as a Full-back. Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time he is the all-time second highest goal scorer in international field hockey and highest goal scorer in modern field hockey with 348 international goals. A drag-flick specialist noted for his lethal flicks with great accuracy and speed in front of goal from penalty corners he is widely regarded as the 'King of the drag flick'.
Edgar Wallace Chadwick was a left-sided footballer who had a long and distinguished career with Everton during the 1890s. He was also the national coach for the Netherlands from 1908 to 1913.
Milan Nový is a Czech former professional ice hockey center. He played 16 seasons in the Czechoslovak Elite League, winning six league championships between 1974 and 1980. He also played one season in the National Hockey League with the Washington Capitals during the 1982–83 season. Internationally Nový played for the Czechoslovakian national team on multiple occasions, including the 1976 and 1980 Winter Olympics, winning a silver medal in 1976, and gold at the 1976 and 1977 World Championships. Nový was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2012.
Vladimír Martinec is a Czech former ice hockey player. He played as a right winger during the 1970s and early 1980s, and won the Golden Hockey Stick award as top player in Czechoslovakia four times, in 1973, 1975, 1976, and 1979. Internationally, he played for the Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team, and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2001.
Maartje Yvonne Helene Paumen is a former Dutch field hockey player. She is currently assistant coach for Dutch club MOP. She previously played for Dutch clubs Oranje Zwart and HC Den Bosch and Belgian club Royal Antwerp. She also played for the Netherlands national team and she was part of the Dutch squad that became world champions at the 2006 Women's Hockey World Cup in Madrid and the 2014 Women's Hockey World Cup in The Hague. She also won the 2007 Champions Trophy and the 2011 Champions Trophy. With 195 goals in 235 games, she is the all-time top scorer for the Dutch national team. She is also all-time top scorer in the national Dutch hockey league, the Hoofdklasse.
The Netherlands competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. This was announced in an official statement on the NOC*NSF website. In the statement they named the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games as a highlight in sports to which a lot of sportspeople, coaches and the Dutch sports fans would look forward. The Netherlands aimed for a top 10 nations ranking in the Olympics as well as a top 25 ranking in the Paralympics; they ended up ranking 12th at the Games.
Austin Charles Smith is a South African field hockey player who plays as a defender for Dutch club HC Den Bosch and formerly the South African national team.
Mark William Knowles is the Australian field hockey captain. He has played professional hockey in the Netherlands for HC Rotterdam. He plays for the Queensland Blades in the Australian Hockey League. He has been the captain of the Australia men's national field hockey team the Kookaburras since 2014. He won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2014 World Cup, the 2005 and 2012 Champions Trophy.
Nicholas Andrew Catlin is an English field hockey player who plays as a midfielder.
Hugo Inglis is a New Zealand field hockey player who plays as a forward for the New Zealand national team.
The Netherlands competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Since the nation's official debut in 1900, Dutch athletes had competed at every edition of the Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, with the exception of the sparsely attended 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis and 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, which the Netherlands boycotted because of the Soviet invasion of Hungary.
Mirco Pruyser is a Dutch former field hockey player who played as a forward for Amsterdam and the Dutch national team.
The 2019 Men's EuroHockey Championship was the 17th edition of the EuroHockey Nations Championship, the biennial international men's field hockey championship of Europe organised by the European Hockey Federation.
The 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup Final was a field hockey match played between Belgium and the Netherlands on 16 December 2018 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India.
Nicolás Enrique Della Torre is an Argentine field hockey player who plays as a midfielder or forward for Belgian Hockey League club Dragons and the Argentina national team.
Thijs Johannes Reinier van Dam is a Dutch professional field hockey player who plays as a forward for Rotterdam and the Dutch national team.
