Nina van Koeckhoven (born 6 October 1983) is a Belgian freestyle swimmer and

triathlete A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the d ...

. She won two medals at the

2000 European Aquatics Championships The 2000 LEN European Championships were held Monday 3 July to Sunday 9 July 2000 in Helsinki, Finland. Competition was swum in the 50 m, long course pool at the Mäkelänrinne Swimming Center. The 25th edition of the event was organised by ...

and participated in the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

in four events, but did not reach the finals. Van Koeckhoven was born in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

but later moved to

Zelzate Zelzate () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality only comprises the town of Zelzate proper. In 2021, Zelzate had a total population of 13,124. The total area is 13.71 km2. Zelzate is divided int ...

. In 1991, she started swimming in a club. Her first international success was a bronze medal in the 200 m freestyle at the 1997

European Youth Olympic Festival The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fir ...

in Lisbon. Next year she won two more bronze medals, in the 100 m and 200 m freestyle at the

European Junior Swimming Championships The European Junior Swimming Championships (50 m) is an annual swimming competition for European swimmers organized by the Ligue Européenne de Natation and held over five days.

. From 1999 she competed in regular competitions and reached the finals at the

1999 European Aquatics Championships The European Long Course Championships 1999 were a swimming competition held in Istanbul, Turkey from Monday 26 July to Sunday 1 August, in the 50 m pool of the Ataköy Olympic Pool Stadium. The 24th edition of the event was organised by the ...

, again in the 200 m freestyle. Her best results came in 2000 when she won two European medals and passed the Olympic selection. In 2001, she won one more bronze medal, at the

FINA Swimming World Cup The FINA Swimming World Cup is an international series of short course () swimming meets organized by FINA, the International Federation for swimming. Launched in 1988, the FINA Swimming World Cup gathers world-class swimmers in a series of two-da ...

in Paris, and set a national record in the 200 m freestyle (2'00"90) that stood for at least 10 years. However, the same year she had serious food poisoning from which she could not fully recover. In January 2012, having won 10 national titles she retired from competitive swimming. She works as

criminologist Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

with the Belgian police and competes in

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the t ...

(since 2010).

References

External links

VAN KOECKHOVEN, Nina
swimrankings.net {{DEFAULTSORT:van Koeckhoven, Nina 1983 births Living people Flemish sportspeople Olympic swimmers for Belgium Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Belgian female freestyle swimmers European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Sportspeople from Ghent