Ben Dijkstra says his “goals, passion and love for this sport remain unchanged” after he announced he will be competing as a neutral athlete this season as he starts the journey to representing the Netherlands.
Dijkstra, whose father is Dutch, has raced with distinction in a GB vest ever since he won double gold at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games as a 15-year-old, having earlier excelled as a runner.
Switching allegiance can happen for many reasons in triathlon and in Dijkstra’s case it appears to revolve around his ambitions to become an Olympian.
Recent examples include the now-retired Richard Murray racing for the Netherlands having earlier represented South Africa and Max Stapley going from Australia to Great Britain.
Fierce competition for GB spots
The World Triathlon website shows Dijkstra having raced a total of 61 times at different levels / age groups for Great Britain, with an impressive 28 podiums and 13 wins.
He is ranked 61st in the world but has a whole host of Brits ahead of him including reigning Olympic champion Alex Yee, World U23 champs Oliver Conway (current) and Connor Bentley (2022) as well as Jack Willis, Stapley and Harry Leleu.
Hugo Milner is also in the mix, meaning that competition will again be fierce as the Olympic qualification cycle begins in the build up to Los Angeles in 2028. That was also the case in 2024 ahead of Paris where triathlon legend Jonny Brownlee was pipped to the second and final GB spot by Sam Dickinson, who also hopes to be in contention for LA again having raced at middle distance in 2025.
The Dutch meanwhile only have Mitch Kolkman (45th) and Ian Pennekamp (75th) inside the top 150 of the rankings, though the flip side of that it will be harder for them to qualify a team.
Upward trajectory
In 2015 Dijkstra won junior gold at the ITU World Duathlon Championships in Adelaide and then the year later he took bronze in the ITU World Triathlon Championships despite only being 17 in an under 20 category. That race was won by Matt Hauser who added a first senior world title to it late last year on home turf in Wollongong.
An injury-hit 2018 was followed by a double gold for Dijkstra at the 2019 ETU Triathlon U23 European Championships in Valencia – behind him in the individual race were the likes of Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca and Hungary’s Csongor Lehmann who have gone on to be star names in short course triathlon.
And 2019 also saw him win silver in the U23 Mixed Relay at the ITU World Championships in Lausanne where his teammates were Paris Olympic hero Yee, T100 World Triathlon champ Kate Waugh and Liv Mathias.
Last season saw Dijkstra take a step up as for the first time he twice made the top 10 in World Triathlon Championship Series races, the highest level of the sport.
He was eighth to Hayden Wilde at WTCS Abu Dhabi and then filled the same position behind eventual world champion Hauser at WTCS Yokohama.
Podium start in neutral vest
Dijkstra revealed the switch on Instagram, saying: “🧡 Exciting news to share !!! 🧡
“I’ll always have fond memories and be grateful for having represented the red, white and blue of Great Britain but it’s time for change. From now on I’ll have a stint as a neutral athlete, before being able to officially represent the Netherlands.
“First race up is on Friday in Egypt to see where the body is at, then hopefully a full season ahead!
“My goals, passion and love for this sport remain unchanged and I can’t wait until I can wear the orange 🧡”
The event in Egypt was the Africa Triathlon Cup El Galala where he was pipped late on the 5km run by Germany’s Justus Töpper and France’s Baptiste Passemard as he had to settle for third.
