Marianne-Timmer-info-1.jpg
Speaker & Olympic Sprint Champion

Marianne Timmer

Marianne Timmer shows what it takes to perform at your best at exactly the right moment. Drawing on her elite sporting mindset, she translates perseverance, dealing with setbacks and focus into everyday working life. Energetic, grounded and inspiring for teams that want to perform and keep going.

  • Rate indication: Price on request
  • Available for booking as: Speaker
  • Languages: English Dutch

About Marianne Timmer

The Netherlands came to know Marianne Timmer as the blonde girl from Sappemeer who, seemingly out of nowhere, skated to Olympic gold in the 1,500 metres at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. “Timmertje, Timmertje, what are you doing?” A few days later, she repeated this remarkable achievement in the 1,000 metres.

Elite Sport

Maria Aaltje Timmer entered the history books as the most successful Dutch sprint skater of all time. Following her double victory in Nagano, she won numerous national titles and another Olympic gold medal in the 1,000 metres in Turin in 2006. In 2004, she also became the first Dutch woman to be crowned World Sprint Champion, once again on her favourite track in Nagano. Throughout her skating career, she overcame numerous setbacks. She did so with disarming, down to earth Groninger resilience, which also won the hearts of many.

Her career on the ice ended abruptly in 2009 due to a serious injury, causing her to miss the Vancouver Olympics. However, Marianne remained committed to speed skating. As a coach, she achieved success with athletes including Margot Boer, Thijsje Oenema and Ireen Wüst.

Sports Executive

Today, Marianne also works behind the scenes as a sports executive. In 2020, she served as Chef de Mission at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. She also leads the innovation team at the Dutch Sport Tech Fund, which invests in start ups.

Lifestyle Coach

Timmer’s commitment extends beyond elite sport. She strongly believes in the importance of a healthy lifestyle for everyone. As a lifestyle coach, she actively guides groups of people. Through her role within the innovation team at the Dutch Sport Tech Fund, she works with many start ups and scale ups and remains closely connected to new developments in sport. She is also involved with the Orange Sports Forum, which handles grant applications for promising developments in sport and health. Marianne coaches individuals and groups towards healthier and better lives, including through efficient training. This helps people become happier, fitter and more effective. Drawing on her enthusiasm and experience in elite sport, she delivers distinctive keynotes focused on health, vitality, perseverance and connection.

Her favourite one liner is: “Without lows, there can be no highs. But when you peak, make sure you do so at the right moment. Pick your moments!”

Sessions

Both organisations and individuals often set ambitious goals. Sometimes these are easy to achieve, but in rapidly changing circumstances, reaching them can require a truly exceptional performance.

The road to peak performance is never easy. There is much to learn from the world of elite sport about navigating that journey. In this presentation, Marianne shares the lessons she has learned about creating success throughout her twenty five years in elite sport, as an individual athlete, coach and team manager. She draws on both successful periods and, perhaps even more importantly, times of adversity.

Since 2016, Marianne Timmer has motivated companies and organisations to achieve peak performance. She does so as a speaker through her presentation, “The Mystery of Success”. In it, she shares her journey towards winning three Olympic gold medals and reveals the unseen, subtle factors that proved crucial, as well as how to approach them to deliver results.

Marianne is not a speaker from the world of sport who simply tells stories from the past. She certainly shares her experiences, successes and failures, but it is the lessons that matter. These are translated directly to the business world, because after her presentation, you should leave with practical inspiration, motivation and concrete tools you can apply the very next day.

Book Marianne as a speaker and experience it for yourself.

Good health is an essential condition for living a fulfilling life and developing your talents and abilities, both within organisations and beyond. But how do you achieve and maintain that health? The world of elite sport provides extensive knowledge about health and how to build genuine fitness into your life.

In this presentation, Marianne shares the fundamental physical principles she has learned throughout her twenty five years in elite sport. These principles also provide a foundation for good mental health, reflecting the saying: “A healthy mind in a healthy body.”

Video's

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