{"id":3879,"date":"2026-06-12T18:05:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3879"},"modified":"2026-06-12T18:05:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:05:40","slug":"gators-star-discus-thrower-alida-van-daalen-eyes-national-record-at-ncaas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3879","title":{"rendered":"Gators star discus thrower Alida van Daalen eyes national record at NCAAs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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GAINESVILLE \u2014 If Alida van Daalen becomes an NCAA champion and record-setter Saturday, she\u2019ll fulfill a destiny decades in the making \u2014 one the 24-year-old didn\u2019t see coming.<\/p>\n

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The Florida star is the daughter of an Olympian mother and a 6-foot-9 father. Yet Jacqueline Goormachtigh, a discus thrower who represented the Netherlands at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, didn\u2019t push her daughter toward the event.<\/p>\n

She simply wanted her children to play sports and get out of the house.<\/p>\n

Van Daalen was 14 when she discovered just how accomplished her mother had been. Digging through a box of newspaper clippings, she uncovered a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 her mother had kept to herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should have known she was famous,\u201d van Daalen told the Orlando Sentinel. \u201cA lot of people knew her at the track too, and I was like, \u2018Why do they know my mom?’\u201d<\/p>\n

When van Daalen eventually gravitated toward the discus and shot put, Goormachtigh realized her daughter had chosen the same path she once traveled.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe explained, \u2018I wanted you to choose your own destiny,’\u201d van Daalen said. \u201c\u2018I wanted you to choose your own sport, and it\u2019s just so weird that you chose the one that I did.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Once mother and daughter were on the same page, Goormachtigh had one request: \u201cYou need to try and break my, your family record, because I\u2019m still the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Van Daalen surpassed her mother\u2019s personal best two years ago. Now she\u2019s threatening every record in the book.<\/p>\n

Her throw of 218 feet, 10 inches set an SEC Championship meet record, and her toss of 227-5 at the East Preliminary on May 30 is the longest throw ever recorded at an NCAA-sanctioned event.<\/p>\n

Now she has her sights set on Fresno State\u2019s Cierra Jackson\u2019s NCAA Championships\u2019 mark of 215-11, set in 2025 when she edged van Daalen for the national title.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wants to be the best ever in the discus,\u201d her coach Eric Werskey said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Van Daalen possesses all the tools required to launch a 2.2-pound discus distances few women on Earth can match.<\/p>\n

She stands 6-foot-3, can power clean 265 pounds and possesses unusual agility and elite coordination. Just as important, she developed the mental approach needed to maximize her gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you put pressure on something, it\u2019s not gonna go far, especially in throwing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That insight paid off at the SEC Championships.<\/p>\n

Determined to break her conference record, van Daalen pressed throughout the competition until head coach Mike Holloway pulled her aside before her final attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Alida, you got the competition won, stop trying to throw far, work on your technique, and she threw further,’\u201d Holloway recalled.<\/p>\n

Moments later, she produced the best throw in SEC history.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad nothing to do with me,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cI just asked her to calm down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Daalen\u2019s record-setting rise at Florida nearly never happened.<\/p>\n

Werskey, then in his final season at Iowa, first contacted her through social media in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was adamant on staying with her mom and training in the Netherlands,\u201d he recalled. \u201cShe told me no, probably three or four times.\u201d<\/p>\n

After arriving at Florida and helping guide the Gators to men\u2019s and women\u2019s championships in 2022, Werskey tried again.<\/p>\n

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\u201cShe told me no like three or four more times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Running out of options, Werskey reached out directly to Goormachtigh, who agreed to a conservation.<\/p>\n

A 30-minute Zoom call followed by a campus visit in October 2022 convinced van Daalen to sign with Florida the following month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can feel people from just how they talk \u2014 I\u2019m a very feelings person,\u201d van Daalen said. \u201cI could feel that this was a good man, and I just really needed that after everything that I\u2019ve been through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Daalen declined to discuss specifics, but she said the COVID shutdown contributed to PTSD and mild depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted a fresh start,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She quickly validated her decision.<\/p>\n

In March of 2023, van Daalen won the SEC indoor shot put title with a school-record shot put throw of 61 feet, 2 \u00be inches.<\/p>\n

Still, the discus remained her true passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does the shot put for the team,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cThe discus is for her, and the team as well, but the discus is her baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Daalen\u2019s blend of power, technique and timing has helped Florida\u2019s women for a national title run. She finished third in the shot put Thursday with a school-record throw of 59-5\u00bd and will begin Saturday\u2019s team-title push when the discus competition starts at 2:30 p.m. in Eugene, Oregon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a joke, to get to the throwing field, you got to cross the train tracks, make a left at a mile-and-a-half, and then cross another railroad,\u201d said Werskey, a champion thrower himself at Auburn. \u201cThose are legit stories. But whenever they do get put on display, they put on a show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Daalen\u2019s athletic journey began long before she discovered discus.<\/p>\n

She tried gymnastics and swimming. She ran sprints, competed in the long and high jump, threw the javelin and even attempted the 1,000-meter run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hated that,\u201d she said, with her infectious laugh. \u201cI was definitely not a long-distance kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a 9-year-old shot putter, she found a different motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started winning,\u201d she said. \u201cI like winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she took up discus at age 11, van Daalen found her calling. Three years later, she broke the Dutch under-16 record.<\/p>\n

The Olympic rings hanging from her necklace remind her how far she has come. Van Daalen represented the Netherlands in the 2024 Games in Paris and won gold medals in both the shot put and discus at the European U23 Championships.<\/p>\n

Since arriving at Florida, she has rewritten school records and collected All-SEC and All-American honors.<\/p>\n

Now she has one more opportunity to claim the NCAA title in the event she was born to throw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just need to not put too much pressure on myself, because I know I\u2019m capable,\u201d she said. \u201cI just need to stay relaxed and execute. I already knew that last year, but just let it slip away. It was a little painful.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you need to learn and go through those moments to get stronger and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Canada is ready to become a soccer nation as it hosts World Cup opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina<\/a><\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida’s Alida van Daalen arrives at the NCAA Championships poised to cap a record-setting career with a discus crown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-sports","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nGators star discus thrower Alida van Daalen eyes national record at NCAAs - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3879\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gators star discus thrower Alida van Daalen eyes national record at NCAAs - 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