‘My parents gave me some inline skates when I was a child and sent me to inline skating classes at a local club so I would be safe in traffic. I learned how to fall and brake, and I entered my first competitions. It was the start of a professional career, with medals of all three colours at the Dutch Championships, and — my proudest moment — bronze at the European Championships in 2022.

I knew then that I was nearing the end of my elite sporting career. It was still physically challenging, but I wasn’t getting much out of it at a personal level. My degree programme in applied physics was much more interesting.
I was doing a Research Master’s degree and suddenly found myself using my creativity and my capacity to critically examine my own experiments. When the professor supervising my research group offered me a PhD position,
I said yes.

I’m doing fundamental research that’s funded by the chip manufacturer ASML. It’s about the processes in the machines that make the chips. More specifically, it’s about finding the most efficient way to make short-wavelength light. The shorter the wavelength, the more you can print on a chip. ASML often hits the headlines because of its highly sensitive technology, which must not fall into the hands of the Chinese. I had to sign a confidentiality agreement. And everything we publish must be approved by ASML.

I started my PhD research in July, and announced my retirement from inline skating in June. I’d wanted to take part in the European Championships in Germany in July, because I missed almost all of the 2024 season with glandular fever, the after-effects of shin surgery, and the removal of my tonsils. But this new challenge made me change my plans. I was in the stands in Germany, cheering on my inline speed skating friend Lianne van Loon. But I didn’t regret missing it myself for a minute.

If you can’t give 100%, you don’t belong at the European Championships. Some people stop their professional sporting career and don’t know what to do with the rest of their life. I’m so glad that this hasn’t happened to me. This feels like switching from one elite sport to another.’

'I was in the National Military Museum on the Soesterberg airbase with my parents, sister and brother. It was great!
I was really good at the flight games. I’d never been in a real plane, but I thought: this might be a job for me!

My parents weren’t particularly thrilled at the idea of me becoming a pilot. They thought the training was expensive and a huge financial risk. They weren’t keen. But the next summer, we flew to Majorca, especially for me. And my mother came with me to an open day at the KLM Flight Academy.

I looked into it and discovered that there were payment schemes. KLM is now paying for my training on the understanding that I come to work for them. My training fees will be deducted from my salary.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make the selection the first time.
I failed the psychological tests. That was right after completing my VWO exams. The psychologist said that I wasn’t old enough and should try again later. The Bachelor’s programme in Physics was Plan B. KLM takes your grades for maths and physics into account, so I really did my best in the final years of secondary school. I’d never been much of a swot before that, but now I was motivated to do all
I could to make my dream come true. At the KLM Flight Academy open day, someone said: “Go gliding, that will help”. So I did. And I still do it. I’ve already got my glider pilot’s licence.

I’ve been training at the Flight Academy since 2023, and started out living on the campus of Groningen Airport Eelde. Eelde was where I flew by myself for the first time, in a single-motor aeroplane. First of all, close to the airport, but later I navigated myself to Germany and back. I was given a plane by school. Good luck and have fun, they said. I’m now training at Schiphol.

I’ll start working for KLM in December, and hope to rise through the ranks to captain. I doesn’t really feel like work, particularly not at first. It’s more like going on holiday, except that I’m the one who’s steering.’

FLEUR VEEN (26)

DEGREE > MSc in Applied Physics, 2025
IS > PhD student at the UG, funded by chip manufacturer ASML; previously, professional inline speed skater HOME SITUATION > single HOME > rented accommodation in Heerenveen INCOME > € 2,968 gross per month

SJOUKE DE JONG (24)

DEGREE > BA in Applied Physics, 2023 IS > trainee pilot HOME SITUATION > LAT relationship with Marc (29), also a pilot HOME > temporary apartment in the Oosterpark area of Amsterdam INCOME > will start earning in December 2025, when she starts working for KLM 

One applied physicist had never been on a plane when she decided to
become a pilot. Another put her inline skates into storage in favour of
PhD research into processes at the chip manufacturer ASML.