Triathlete Maya Kingma, at the age of 29, is making the switch to cycling. The athlete from Breda is joining the American team EF Education-Oatly with immediate effect and will already participate in the Giro d’Italia in a week.
Kingma has represented the Netherlands twice at the Olympic Games. Last year she finished seventh in Paris and achieved tenth place with the mixed relay team. In 2021, that mixed relay even resulted in a fourth place for the Netherlands. Kingma finished eleventh in the individual triathlon in Tokyo.
Now Kingma is ready for a new challenge. “I have been doing triathlon for a very long time. A switch to road cycling has been on my mind for quite some time,” she says on the EF Education-Oatly website. “There are so many different types of races in cycling, where tactics play an important role. I like that.”
At the beginning of July, Kingma can immediately show herself in one of the most important women’s races. Her new team is immediately taking her to the Giro d’Italia, which starts next Sunday.
Kingma is very excited about that. “I don’t feel any pressure. Just do it. I have participated in the Olympic Games twice, so I am used to big events. The fact that my team has so much confidence in me is a great boost.”
Kingma joined the team thanks to a compatriot: director and former cyclist Esra Tromp already invited her for a training internship in January. “I was immediately impressed,” says Tromp about Kingma. “We have a young selection and I think our riders can learn a lot from a professional like Maya, even though she comes from a different sport.”