Elco van der Geest (born 4 May 1979 in Haarlem, North Holland) is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

-born

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

judoka. Throughout his career, Elco had competed for the Netherlands. In August 2009, Elco accepted the request to join the Belgian team. He achieved Belgian citizenship right before the

2009 World Judo Championships The 2009 World Judo Championships was held in the Ahoy indoor sporting arena in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on 26 to 30 August. Women's heavyweight champion Tong Wen was stripped of her gold medal because of a doping offence, but was later reins ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

. He is the son of coach Cor van der Geest and a younger brother of Dennis who is also a judoka competing on the highest level. According to

International Judo Federation The International Judo Federation (IJF) was founded in July 1951. The IJF was originally composed of judo federations from Europe and Argentina. Countries from four continents were affiliated over the next ten years. Today the IJF has 200 National ...

's World Ranking List, as of June 2010, Elco van der Geest is rank at the number-two spot under

Takamasa Anai is a Japanese judoka. He began judo at the age of 5. He is Coached by former world champion and olympic silver medalist Shinichi Shinohara. He won the All-Japan Championships and took the bronze medal at the World Championships in 2009. H ...

of Japan. He has twice competed at the Olympics, once for the Netherlands in 2004 losing to Ihar Makarau in the semi-finals, and then to

Ariel Zeevi Ariel "Arik" Ze'evi ( he, אריאל "אריק" זאבי, born 16 January 1977) is a retired Israeli dan 6 black belt in Judo. He had a long and successful career competing in half-heavyweight Judo competitions. He is an Olympic bronze medal fina ...

in the bronze medal match, and then in 2012 where he lost to eventual gold medalist Tagir Khaibulaev in the first round.

Achievements

References

External links

* *
Videos of Elco van der Geest
(judovision.org)
Dutch Olympic Committee
1979 births Living people Dutch male judoka van der Geest Judoka at the 2004 Summer Olympics Judoka at the 2012 Summer Olympics van der Geest Olympic judoka of the Netherlands Sportspeople from Haarlem {{Belgium-judo-bio-stub