 Mentel in 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Bibian Mentel-Spee | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Dutch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1972-09-27)27 September 1972 Utrecht, Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 29 March 2021(2021-03-29) (aged 48) Loosdrecht, Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1996–2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | bibianmentel.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | alpine skiing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | SB-LL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Snowboard cross, Banked slalom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Edwin Spee(husband)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Bibian Mentel-Spee (27 September 1972 – 29 March 2021) was a Dutch three-foldWinter Paralympics gold-medalist, and five-times world champion para-snowboarding athlete. Mentel won the Paralympic gold medal in thesnowboard cross discipline in the 2014 and 2018Paralympic Winter Games, as well as in thebanked slalom in 2018, despite battling cancer nine times since the beginning of the century. She won her 2018 medals at age 45.
Mentel co-wrote two books about her life, career, and struggles with cancer, and set up her own "Mentelity" foundation.
In 2012, Mentel was invested as a knight of theOrder of Orange-Nassau.
Mentel started her snowboard career in 1993. In 1996 she participated in her firstFIS Snowboard World Cup competition. Mentel became six times Dutch champion in the regular, non-disabledhalf-pipe andsnowboard cross disciplines, before developing medical troubles.[3]
During a practice run for the championships inBreckenridge, Colorado, in December 1999, she suffered an injury in herankle. She completed the season, however the ankle remained a source of concern.X-rays showed a spot on hertibia which was diagnosed as a malignantbone tumor. The tumor was removed and Mentel started training for the2002 Winter Olympics for which she qualified. Soon it became clear the tumor had regrown and had a chance of spreading to the rest of her body via her blood. She chose to have her legamputated.[4]
Four months after the amputation she was able to ride a snowboard again, despite still being unable to walk usingcrutches. The following January she was asked to present the trophy at the Dutch championships half-pipe. She decided to compete in the Dutch snowboard cross championships, which she won—in the main class—not the disabled;[5][1] her seventh Dutch championship.[6] This inspired Mentel to work with Dutch member of theInternational Paralympic CommitteeRita van Driel to get snowboarding adopted as a medal event at the paralympic Winter Games. After eight years of lobbying this was achieved in 2012.[1][5]
In 2013, Mentel qualified for the2014 Winter Paralympics. At the opening ceremony she was the flag bearer for the Netherlands. She won the Paralympic gold medal in thesnowboard cross event.[7]
In the winter season prior to the2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, Mentel was unable to participate in a single competition due to medical complications.[5] Due to her condition, most sponsors had given up on her, theDutch Olympic Committee*Dutch Sports Federation did not support her, and the Dutch Skiing sports federation would only fund a small portion of her expenses.[1] She was able to obtain the required funds to compete at the 2018 Winter Paralympics throughcrowdfunding.[8]
At the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, Mentel was once again the Dutch flag bearer, again winning the gold medal in the snowboard cross, as well as taking the gold medal on the banked slalom event, beating American competitorBrittani Coury by 0.07 seconds.[9]
Since being diagnosed with cancer at age 27, Mentel was confronted with and treated for cancer nine times, including five surgeries. The most recent surgery, in January 2018, replaced herC6 neck vertebra with a titanium frame.[8] In 2016 she was told the cancer was terminal, but a switch to a different hospital, where she could receive advanced MRI-guidedradiotherapy treatment,[1] pulled her through, such that she was able to compete successfully in 2018.[5]
Mentel co-wrote two books about her life, career and struggles with cancer. Magnate and philanthropistRichard Branson called her second bookKut kanker!, whose title loosely translates as "Cancer Is Crap!", a "[s]tory of an amazing woman. A must read for anyone who wants to enjoy life to the max".[10] In total, she had received 15 treatments for cancer.
In early March 2021, it was announced that she had been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor.[11] According to a statement by her management, she was looking no further ahead than a few months and had started saying farewell to friends and family. On 29 March 2021, it was announced that Mentel had died from the consequences of the tumor.[12] She was survived by her husband and her son.[13]
In 1993, Mentel gave up her law school study in Amsterdam to focus on snowboarding entirely. In 2004 she graduated from the four-year high-level professional program in 'commercial economics, sports marketing & management' at the Randstad Topsports Academy[14] – a collaboration of theHogeschool Rotterdam and theSaxion University of Applied Sciences, and in 2013 she became an 'International Master of Sport Management' at theJohan Cruyff Institute.[15]
In 2012, Mentel set up her own "Mentelity foundation", to stimulate, motivate, and inspire children and adolescents with a physical disability (to continue) to engage in sports, both in general, as well as in extreme board sports in particular.[1] By this approach, and aided by the foundation's volunteers, she wanted to make a positive contribution to the mental and physical development of physically disabled people.[16] In that year, she also coached para-athleteFleur Jong during her rehabilitation after a leg amputation.[17] Mentel also coached para-snowboarderLisa Bunschoten early in her career.[18]
Mentel also worked as a motivational speaker, in the Dutch and English language;[14] and occasionally taught at awakeboarding school.[19]
In 2019, she appeared in the television showGroeten uit 19xx.[20]
..nieuwe MRIdian: een bestralingsapparaat waar een MRI-scanner is ingebouwd." (English: ".. newMRIdian, a radiotherapy machine with a built-inMRI scanner.
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