Joop Stokkel

Joop Stokkel ( born April 11, 1967) is a Dutch swimmer and rider.

At seven, he climbed over the fence of a power station, which stood behind his parents' house. When he ran in an electric field, he got a shock of 50,000 volts. As a consequence of his left leg and his right arm had to be amputated. To make after the accident still something out of his life, he first learned judo. After him the sport was not so, he began in 1982 with the swimming and riding.

At the Paralympics in Seoul in 1988 and the Paralympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 Stokkel won in the swimming competitions a total of five gold, three silver and three bronze medals. In Sydney, he won the gold medal in the individual competition, and with the Dutch team silver in the team competition at the 2000 Paralympics in riding. At the 2004 Paralympics in Athens Stokkel led during the opening ceremony of the Dutch team as a standard-bearer to. In the equestrian competitions he entered on the horse Pegasus Olympic Champion Anky van Grunsven.