Els van Breda Vriesman


Els van Breda Vriesman-Commandeur is a Dutch sports functionary and jurist.
Els Commandeur was born in 1941 in the Dutch city of Enschede. She studied law and was a hockey player, achieving a position in the Dutch national youth team. She is a sports functionary since the early 1980s, best known for her positions in field hockey. She was a board member of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Hockey Bond for 14 years, and was a representative to the International Hockey Federation. Between 1989 and 1993 she was also board member of the Dutch Olympic Committee.
In 1987 she was appointed as the technical delegate for the female hockey tournament at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. She was chair of the technical commission of the Federation, and was from 1994 its secretary-general. In 2001 she was elected as president of the Federation, with an agenda for renewal of the sport. As such, she was also a representative in the International Olympic Committee and member of various IOC committees. After she lost her re-election in 2008 from Leandro Negre, she also resigned from those positions.
In 2010 van Breda Vriesman was appointed as Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for her work as volunteer for hockey and sports.

Personal life

Van Breda Vriesman is married has three children. Besides hockey, she's also has cycled and played golf.