Dutch rower Marloes Oldenburg makes it to Paris Olympics two years after nearly losing her life in bicycle crash

Dutch rower Marloes Oldenburg overcomes near-death experience to compete in Paris Olympics, still unable to turn her head.

Two years ago, doctors were by the hospital bed of Dutch rower Marloes Oldenburg asking if she wanted to donate her organs in case the risky surgery they were about to perform on her didn't go well.

She had just been airlifted to a hospital with her back broken into multiple places following a nasty bicycle crash during a trip to celebrate the silver medals she had won at the world championships a week earlier.

Doctors didn't know if Oldenburg would survive, or even walk again, so rowing wasn't really a priority at the time.

About 12 weeks later, Oldenburg was back training. And in less than a month, she will be rowing again at the Paris Olympics — still carrying the pins that were inserted under the skin of her neck, and still unable to turn her head sideways because of the surgery that saved her life and changed her perspective on sports.

“It sounds a bit weird when you are 36, but I'm really happy I'm alive. If you've been so close to death, you have to appreciate a lot,” she said. “My goal really changed. Beforehand, it was: I need to go to the Olympics, I need to get a medal.' And now it's more like: I'm going to the Olympics. How cool!'" Oldenburg had to learn how to swim again before getting back in a boat, but quickly got up to speed and will arrive in France as one of the medal favorites with the Dutch team in the coxless four event.

“It went really fast,” she said. “My teammates picked me up, they supported me. After six months we got bronze at the European (championships). And after 10 months, we became world champions. It was insane." Oldenburg landed on top of her head after her bicycle flipped over while she went across a tiny bridge on a mountain biking route in the Netherlands. She broke the first vertebrae and damaged a main artery in the neck during the fall.

“It was stiff, I could not move,” she said. “My body was, like, protecting itself. I would want to move, but my body didn't want to.” A nurse who was biking along the same route was among the first to stop to help, and he immediately told Oldenburg to try to stay still. Her husband was biking ahead of her and returned to the scene of the accident to find Oldenburg motionless — she only had feeling in her toes and fingers at that point — but was in good spirits.