Evelyn van Leeuwen (born 15 May 1972) is a Dutch wheelchair basketball player from

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

. She competed at four Paralympic Games between 1996 and 2016. She won the silver medal at the

1996 Summer Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympic Games, Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games ...

and 20 years later the bronze medal at the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

Sports career

From a young age, van Leeuwen was a low-level competitive

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

. When she was 18 years old she crashed during a competition in

. There wasn't a proper safety boarding, causing her to become

paraplegic Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...

. After two years of recovery, she started to again become involved with sports. She started with wheelchair basketball and after contacting the national coach, she was able to become part of the national team. In 2000, van Leeuwen was a professional player in

Badajoz Badajoz (; formerly written ''Badajos'' in English) is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana. The population ...

in western Spain while she was conducting research. It was a team of men and she was asked to join them and she stayed there for a year. She also played at the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...

2004 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 136 , athletes = 3,806 , events = 519 in 19 sports , opening = 17 September , closing = 28 September , opened_by = President Costis Stephanopoulos , cauldron = Georgios Toptsis , stadium = Olympic ...

and

2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship Separate men's and women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship tournaments were held in 2014. The women's tournament was held at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada between 20 and 28 June 2014. It was the largest women's ...

. Due to pregnancy, she couldn't compete at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. At the beginning of her wheelchair basketball career, van Leeuwen was studying medicine. Later, also next to her wheelchair basketball activity, she was a general practitioner, but she became a paediatrician in 2012 so that she could then work part-time. In 2016, van Leeuwen returned to the national team and she won a team bronze medal at the

in Rio. She was the oldest player on the team but there were two others also in their 40s.

Personal

Van Leeuwen is married to Olympian and Paralympian Jeroen Straathof. They have four daughters and she prioritised them over competing while they were growing up. In time she has learned to cycle and she can walk with the aid of crutches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leeuwen, Evelyn, van 1972 births Living people Paralympic bronze medalists for the Netherlands Paralympic silver medalists for the Netherlands Dutch women's wheelchair basketball players Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for the Netherlands Dutch expatriate basketball people in Spain Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics 21st-century Dutch women