Wietse Cornelis van Alten (born 24 September 1978) is a retired

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

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 ...

. Van Alten was born in

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad, and received city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan, just north of Amsterdam. The statistical district Zaand ...

, in the municipality of

Zaanstad Zaanstad () is a Dutch municipality in the province of North Holland, situated northwest of Amsterdam. Its main city is Zaandam. It is part of the conurbation and metropolitan area of Amsterdam. It had a population of in . Topography Popul ...

. He has competed in archery since the age of seven. Van Alten's first major international competition was the 1999 World Target Competition. He placed 8th there, earning a spot on the Olympic team. 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 ...

in Sydney, van Alten lost to

Simon Fairweather Simon John Fairweather, OAM (born 9 October 1969) is an archer born in Adelaide, South Australia. He is tall and weighs . Fairweather won the individual gold medal at the World Championships in Poland in 1991. Fairweather was declared the ...

of Australia in the semifinals, but rebounded with the highest score of the tournament for a 12-arrow match by scoring 114 in the bronze medal match to defeat

Magnus Petersson Magnus Petersson (born 17 June 1975 in Gothenburg) is an archer from Sweden. He is an experienced Olympian, having won a silver medal in 1996. Petersson advanced to the semifinals in archery at the 2000 Summer Olympics, but was defeated ther ...

of Sweden and win the bronze medal. The Netherlands team, of which he was a member, placed 9th in the men's team competition. After suffering an elbow injury which required surgery in 2001, van Alten returned to success in competition in 2003 when he placed 6th in the World Target Competition held in New York,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Van Alten competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in men's individual archery, trying to defend his bronze medal. His score in the 72-arrow ranking round was 661, giving him a starting rank of 14th. He won his first match 152-151 against Ricardo Merlos of El Salvador, advancing to the round of 32. In the second round of elimination, he was defeated by Ilario Di Buò of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

164-160. His final rank was 27th overall. Van Alten was also a member of the Netherlands' 5th-place men's archery team at the 2004 Summer Olympics, along with Pieter Custers and Ron van der Hoff. In summer 2004, he achieved the world number one ranking. After failing to qualify for the Beijing olympics in 2008, Van Alten retired. In 2013, he became the national coach of the Italian recurve team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alten, Wietse van 1978 births Living people Dutch male archers Archers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic archers for the Netherlands Olympic bronze medalists for the Netherlands Sportspeople from Zaanstad Olympic medalists in archery Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics 21st-century Dutch people

External links

Personal website