Wilma van den Berg

Wilhelmina Catharina Maria Martina "Wilma" van Gool (née van den Berg on 11 August 1947, commonly known as Wilma van den Berg) is a Dutch former sprinter, two-time Olympian, silver medalist in the European Championships and Universiade, Dutch national champion, and 1969 Dutch Female Athlete of the Year.

In this Dutch name, the surname is van den Berg, not Berg.
Wilma van den Berg
Wilma and Riet van den Berg in 1970
Personal information
Birth nameWilhelmina Catharina Maria Martina van Gool
Full nameWilhelmina Catharina Maria Martina "Wilma" van Gool-van den Berg
Born (1947-08-11) 11 August 1947
Uden, the Netherlands
Height1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight56 kg (123 lb)
Sport
SportSprint
ClubDe Keijen
Medal record
Representing the  Netherlands
European Championships (outdoors)
Silver medal – second place1969 Athens100 m
European Championships (indoors)
Bronze medal – third place1970 Vienna60 m

Biography

She won the Dutch national championship in both the 100 m event and the 200 m in 1967, 1969-72, and 1976; she also won the 100 m event in 1974.[1]

She won a silver medal at the 1969 European Championships in the 100 m event, and a bronze medal at the 1970 European Indoor Championships in the 60 m.[2] At the 1970 Summer Universiade she won a silver medal in the 100 m event, and a bronze medal in the 200 m.[3]

She competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics and 1972 Summer Olympics in the 100 m and 200 m sprint and 4 × 100 m relay. She finished in fourth place in the relay in 1968; individually, she did not reach the finals.[3]

She had qualified for the semifinals in the 200 m sprints at the Munich Olympics, and the 23.22 that she ran in the quarterfinals was faster than the time in the quarterfinals of the eventual gold medal winner, Renate Stecher of East Germany.[4] However, after the killing of 11 Israeli athletes in the Munich Massacre, and the Olympics not being cancelled, she withdrew from the competition in sympathy with the Israeli victims.[5] She said that she was leaving in protest of the "obscene" decision to continue with the Olympic Games.[6] The organizers of the 1973 Maccabiah Games in Israel invited her to join, and she ran as a pacer--not as a competitor.[5]

In 1969 she was selected as the Dutch Female Athlete of the Year. Her personal bests were 11.1 seconds in the 100 m (1972), and 23.22 seconds in the 200 m (1972).[3]

See also

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wilma van den Berg.
  1. "Dutch Championships". www.gbrathletics.com.
  2. "Wilma VAN GOOL | Profile | World Athletics". worldathletics.org.
  3. Wilma van Gool-van den Berg. sports-reference.com
  4. "Olympedia – 200 metres, Women". www.olympedia.org.
  5. "Maccabiah Games: A Somber Occasion". The New York Times. July 8, 1973.
  6. John Bale (2004). Running Cultures; Racing in Time and Space


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