Cornelia Maria (Cocky) van Engelsdorp-Gastelaars (born 24 February 1938, Rotterdam) is a Dutch former

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who twice improved the world record in the

women's 100 metre freestyle A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

in 1956. On March 3, 1956, in Amsterdam she broke the 20-year-old record of 1:04.6 by Willy den Ouden, who like Gastelaars, was born and raised in Rotterdam. Only later it turned out that her time of 1:04.2 was an improvement on Dawn Fraser race in 1:04.5 in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

the previous week. On April 14 Gastelaars lowered the record to 1:04.0 in her home base swimming pool in

Schiedam Schiedam () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of Rotterdam, east of Vlaardingen, and south of Delft. In the south the city is connected with the village ...

. The decision by the Dutch Olympic Committee to boycott the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

in Melbourne that same year in protest of the

Soviet invasion of Hungary The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

caused her to miss out on a likely medal in the 100m individual freestyle and the 4 × 100 m relays. She did compete in the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

, but was past her prime at that point and finished seventh in 100m freestyle.

References

1938 births Living people Dutch female freestyle swimmers World record setters in swimming Swimmers from Rotterdam Olympic swimmers of the Netherlands Swimmers at the 1960 Summer Olympics European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming {{Netherlands-swimming-bio-stub

See also

References