Niels Daniel

Welcome to nielsdaniel.com

Niels Daniel is a journalist who works for the Belgian television station RTV. In 2001 he was asked to announce at a brand new gymnastics tournament: the No Limits Open rhytmic gymnastics in Antwerp, Belgium. This was a new experience to him. The saying "It is easier to talk to 500.000 people from a television studio than talking to 50 people who are in front of you" seemed right. Nevertheless he did pretty well, entertaining the spectators for 2 days, for almost 10 hours a day. The most tempting part of the job was talking - and keep on talking - when there was a larger time gap in between the exercises. This happened when the judges did not agree about certain gymnasts. Niels found a great partner in the organisers of the tournament (former Czech Olympic gymnast Jana Vesela and her husband Erik Moers), who provided him with all kinds of information about the athletes. Not only information about their sports careers, but also trivia like favourite food, books or movies. All this knowledge had been put into gymnast profiles, filled in by the athletes themselves. These profiles were a key factor to the success of the first announcing job.

Coaches and judges spread the word. After a few months, more tournament organisers asked him to present their event. Niels got offers from SRG Mol, another rhytmic gymnastics club, and from an ambitious acrobatics gymnastics club in Puurs, Belgium. In 2007, Niels announced 7 major events for 5 different clubs or federations. Amongst them were a World Cup Series Tumbling and Trampoline and the World Cup Finals acrobatic Gymnastics. He was also asked to announce at the acrobatic gymnastics European Championships.

Niels' strong points are his knowledge of 4 languages. He announces in Dutch, English, German and French (although this last is not so fluent as the other 3.) Besides that, he tries to learn some basics in Russian and Polish, just enough to say some nice or funny words to a gymnast who leaves the competition floor or who gets his medal. Sometimes a gymnast reminds Niels years later about 1 or 2 words that he said to him or her in the past.

Niels likes the informal way of announcing. Not to strict, but not clownesk either. He prefers a wireless hand microphone and walks around the hall during the presentations. Improvisation is a big part of the job. Also when things are getting wrong. During one event, which was broadcasted live on television, the announcer had not received the results although the medal award ceremony had started. Niels managed to entertain the spectators. Nobody had noticed that there was an issue. The results were printed shortly after and everything went smooth.

The idea of hiring Niels as an announcer is also interesting for clubs or federations in foreign countries. He can act as a second speaker in France, where he assists the native French announcer. Or in the UK or the States, when the tournament has a lot of athletes from Europe.

Niels is passionated abouth all kinds of sports, especially the less popular ones. He is willing to learn everything abouth a sport that he doesn't fully understand. (Do you know everything about the rules of wallklimbing or squash? Exactly!).
If you have any questions or requirements, you can send him an e-mail at info@nielsdaniel.com .