The Hague, The Netherlands, June 16, 2017 - The illustrious beach volleyball and volleyball career of Dutchman Reinder Nummerdor was honoured here Saturday during a break in the action at the $150,000 Dela Beach Open at the Sportcampus Zuiderpark.
With his wife and 11-month old daughter at his side during the 30-minute afternoon ceremony on the Sportcampus Zuiderpark center court, three individuals representing the local government and Dutch Volleyball federation praised the five-time Olympian for his international Volleyball and Beach Volleyball career that spanned three decades.
The Nummerdors - Manon, Milou & Reinder
In addition to his tournament directorship this week at The Hague event, Nummerdor’s “love” of his life was competing with Marleen van Iersel in the women’s Main Draw as his wife (Manon Flier-Nummerdor) is in the midst of her first season as an international Beach Volleyball player after playing in 430 matches for the Dutch National team over 15 seasons.
As always, a debatable issue when determining an individual’s successes, Reinder’s greatest claim to fame is his voluminous successes on the sand while Manon’s celebrity is based on her indoor reputation as she led The Netherlands to a gold medal at the 2007 FIVB World Grand Prix where she was named the "Most Valuable Player".
However, the couple’s best moment happened a month before the Rio 2016 Olympics on Copacabana when Manon gave birth to their daughter (Milou) on a weekend when Reinder was competing in a FIVB World Tour stop in Switzerland at the SWATCH Major Series event in Gstaad where he and Christiaan Varenhorst reached the “elite eight”.
Although Nummerdor never fulfilled his “dream” of winning an Olympic medal as he appeared five-straight-times for The Netherlands in the Summer Games, he left a mark as one of two players (USA’s Karch Kiraly) to compete in the quadrennial as both a Volleyball (Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004) and Beach Volleyball (Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016) player.
Nummerdor, who played in 349 international Volleyball matches for The Netherlands, competed 11 seasons on the FIVB World Tour with 12 gold medal finishes, 21 podium placements, 27 “final four” finishes and 49 “elite eight” appearances. Playing with three different partners, Nummerdor compiled a 346-175 match mark (66.4 winning percentage).
The 40-year old Nummerdor had competed in the previous six FIVB World Tour stops in The Hague, including four with Richard Schuil (2008, 2010, 2011, 2013), and one each with Steven van de Velde (2014) and Christiaan Varenhorst (2015). Nummerdor and Schuil captured the inaugural 2008 event in The Hague and placed second together in 2011.
At the 2015 FIVB World Championships in The Hague, Nummerdor and Varenhorst won their first six matches to advance to the “final four” where the Dutchmen split a pair of three-set contests with Brazilian teams. After defeating Evandro Goncalves and Pedro Solberg 2-1 (21-18, 21-23, 15-12) in a 54-minute semi-final match, Nummerdor and Varenhorst dropped the 54-minute finale 2-1 (12-21, 21-14, 22-20) to Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt.
The 12 FIVB titles individually for Nummerdor ranks 15th all-time and the best-ever by a European player on the World Tour since the start of internationally-sanctioned events in 1987. His nine gold medals with Schuil is tied for 11th all-time with Marcio Araujo/Benjamin Insfran of Brazil and Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins of Latvia.
The best defensive player on the FIVB World Tour in 2009 and 2011, Nummerdor completed his international Beach Volleyball career with his “elite eight” finish at the Rio 2016 Olympics marking his 101st event. After the completion of the 2016 season, he was named the international circuit’s most inspirational player.
A European champion in both Volleyball (1997) and Beach Volleyball (2008), Nummerdor’s final international Beach Volleyball match was “bittersweet” as he and Varenhorst were ousted by compatriots Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen 2-0 (25-23, 21-17) in a 41-minute quarter-final match. Brouwer and Meeuwsen then lost to Alison and Bruno 2-1 (21-17, 21-23, 16-14) in a 56-minute semi-final match and won the bronze medal with a 2-0 (23-21, 22-20) victory in 56 over Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov of Russia.