Judith Meulendijks (born 26 September 1978,

Helmond Helmond (; called ''Héllemond'' in the local dialect) is a city and municipality in the Metropoolregio Eindhoven of the province of North Brabant in the Southern Netherlands. Helmond is home to several textile and metal companies. The Vlisco fa ...

) is a former

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Career

Meulendijks started playing badminton at the BC Phoenix in her hometown and then she went to BC Geldrop. In her junior career, she won 1994 Dutch junior championships in the girls' doubles partnered with Antoinette Achterberg, and in 1995 in the mixed doubles with

Dicky Palyama Dicky Palyama (born March 26, 1978 in Gouda) is a male badminton player from the Netherlands. Early career After winning four junior titles in the Netherlands between 1994 and 1996, Dicky took the European junior U19 title in 1997. His first suc ...

. In 1996, she elected to join the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

, and in the same year, she won the national women's singles title. In 2007, she won the gold medal at the European Junior Championships in the girls' singles event, and also became the first of world-class junior players to make a mark on the International Badminton Federation tournament circuit when she took the women's singles title at the Dutch Open. In 2000, she competed at the

Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug language, Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport ...

in women's singles and was beaten in round 32 by

Ye Zhaoying Ye Zhaoying (; born 7 May 1974) is a retired badminton player from Hangzhou, China. Officially ranked as the number one women's singles player in the world for the first time in December 1995, she lost and regained that ranking several times dur ...

, of China, 11-3, 9-11, 11-7. Meulendijks was a part of the Dutch team who won the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

bronze and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

silver at the

Uber Cup The Uber Cup, sometimes called the World Women's Team Championships, is a major international badminton competition contested by women's national badminton teams. First held in 1956–1957 and contested at three year intervals, it has been contes ...

. She won the

Dutch National Badminton Championships The Dutch National Badminton Championships is a tournament organized to crown the best badminton players in the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , su ...

three times in the Women's singles category (1996, 2008 & 2012) and the Women's doubles two times (2006 & 2007) with

Brenda Beenhakker Brenda Beenhakker (born 18 February 1977) is a retired Dutch badminton player. She is the former European junior champion in the girls' singles event in 1995. She won Dutch National Championships for 8 times; 5 times in singles (1995, 1997, 1998 ...

. She ended her international singles career in style reaching the finals at her home Dutch Open event in 2012 were she lost to Czech player Kristina Gavnholt. She played for many clubs in the Netherlands (BC Phoenix, BC Geldrop, Pellikaan Tilburg, BC Nuenen, BCO Bali & BC Duinwijck), Germany (FC Langenfeld & Bayer Uerdingen with which she won the German Bundesliga title in 2002 & 2003) and Denmark (Team Aarhus & Vendsyssel). She now is a badminton coach in Switzerland.

Major achievements

References

External links

BWF Player ProfileHome page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meulendijks, Judith 1978 births Living people Indo people Sportspeople from Helmond Dutch people of Indonesian descent Dutch female badminton players Olympic badminton players for the Netherlands Badminton players at the 2000 Summer Olympics