Joan Haanappel

Joan Haanappel (born November 13, 1940 in The Hague) is a former Dutch figure skater and sports presenter for the NOS, AVRO, ZDF and Eurosport.
She began her sports career at The Hague ice skating club Houtrust. From the mid-1950s she and the one year younger Sjoukje Dijkstra succeeded in a sport that was previously hardly known in the Netherlands. Initially, Haanappel had the most success of the two. In 1953 she debuted as a 12 year old at the European Figure Skating Championships in Dortmund. in 1955 she won the first of four Dutch titles. Although she did not have Dijkstra's power with jumps she compensated with greater artistry and elegance. In later years Dijkstra proved more successful.
Haanappel won the bronze medal at three European Championships and participated twice in the Winter Olympic Games. At age fifteen she finished in 13th place at the 1956 Games and in 1960 at Squaw Valley she was 5th. After the 1960 World Championships she retired from amateur competition and turned professional, first with the Vienna Ice Revue and later for Holiday on Ice.[1]
In 1976 Haanappel began a 30-year television career as a presenter and sports commentator.
In 2005 she became the first figure skater to be elected to the Board of Directors of the Royal Netherlands Skating Federation (KNSB). Haanappel founded Stichting Kunstrijden Nederland, SKN, (Netherlands Figure Skating Foundation) [www.sknfonds.nl] in 2008, a non profit organisation supporting talented young Dutch figure skaters with the aim of putting the Netherlands back into the top international class.
On November 12, 2008 Joan Haanappel was appointed Knight in the Royal Order of Oranje-Nassau.