[4] During the 1953–54 season, Dijkstra was awarded her first senior national medal, bronze behind Nellie Maas and Joan Haanappel,[citation needed] and was assigned to her first ISU Championship, the 1954 Europeans in Bolzano, where she placed 19th.

[citation needed] She also stood on ISU Championship podiums for the first time, taking silver at the 1959 Europeans and bronze at the 1959 Worlds.

[citation needed] Dijkstra won silver behind Carol Heiss at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California and at the 1960 World Championships in Vancouver.

While her main strength was compulsory figures, she was also a very powerful and athletic free skater who could perform high-quality double Axel jumps and flying spins, and who skated with easy movement and strong flow.

[6][7] At 1.68 metres, she was fairly tall for a skater, and one magazine article noted that "she is much more slender in person than she appears on the ice".