The Netherlands competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. Dutch athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games since its official debut in 1908. Netherlands, however, boycotted the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, because of the Soviet invasion of Hungary. The Netherlands National Olympic Committee (Dutch: Nederlands Olympisch Comité * Nederlandse Sport Federatie, NOC*NSF) sent a total of 210 athletes to the Games, 134 men and 76 women, to compete in 21 sports. Baseball, field hockey, and men's volleyball were the only team-based sports in which the Netherlands had its representation at these Games. There was only a single competitor in women's fencing.
The Dutch team featured five defending Olympic champions: swimming stars Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn, road and track cyclist Leontien van Moorsel, dressage rider Anky van Grunsven along with her horse Bonfire, and middleweight judoka Mark Huizinga, who later became the Netherlands' flag bearer in the opening ceremony.[1] Star sailor Mark Neeleman, at age 45, became the first Dutch male athlete to compete in six Olympic Games since 1980 (except the 1988 Summer Olympics, in which he was selected). Shooter Hennie Dompeling sought his fifth Olympic bid as one of the most sophisticated members of the team, having missed the medal podium in the men's skeet from Sydney four years earlier. Among the Dutch athletes of the team, several of them were born outside the Netherlands and became naturalized citizens, including sprinter Troy Douglas, who competed for three Olympics under the Bermudian flag, badminton players Mia Audina from Indonesia and Jie Yao from China, and taekwondo jin Charmie Sobers from the Netherlands Antilles.
Netherlands left Athens with a total of 22 Olympic medals, 4 golds, 9 silver, and 9 bronze, failing to achieve three medals short of the record from Sydney.[2] Four Olympic champions managed to defend their titles from the previous Games in their respective events, while van den Hoogenband, de Bruijn, and van Moorsel still emerged as the most decorated Dutch athletes at these Games for the second time with more than a single medal. Seven of these medals were awarded to the athletes in swimming, including two from the freestyle relay teams;[3][4] four each in cycling and judo, and three in rowing. Netherlands' team-based athletes proved particularly successful in Athens, as the men's and women's field hockey teams took home silver medals.[5][6]
Dutch athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event at the 'A' Standard, and 1 at the 'B' Standard).[7][8]
Key
Note–Ranks given for track events are within the athlete's heat only
Q = Qualified for the next round
q = Qualified for the next round as a fastest loser or, in field events, by position without achieving the qualifying target
WP:Craig Lewis (1-0) LP:Calvin Maduro (0-2) Home runs: AUS: B. Roneberg in 1st, 2 RBIs; R. van Buizen in 3rd, 4 RBIs; G. Fingleson in 2nd, 3 RBIs; G. Williams in 6th, 2 RBIs NED: Y. de Caster in 2nd, 1 RBI; R. Millard in 5th, 1 RBI
Because only three horse and rider pairs from each nation could advance beyond certain rounds in the individual events, five American pairs did not advance despite being placed sufficiently high. They received rankings below all pairs that did advance.
Qualification Legend: FA=Final A (medal); FB=Final B (non-medal); FC=Final C (non-medal); FD=Final D (non-medal); FE=Final E (non-medal); FF=Final F (non-medal); SA/B=Semifinals A/B; SC/D=Semifinals C/D; SE/F=Semifinals E/F; R=Repechage
Dutch swimmers earned qualifying standards in the following events (up to a maximum of 2 swimmers in each event at the A-standard time, and 1 at the B-standard time):
