Yvonne van Gennip
Yvonne Maria van Gennip, born on May 1, 1964 in Haarlem, The Netherlands
was one of the most successful female Dutch all-round speed skaters. Her main
success dates from the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, where she
surprisingly won three gold medals. After she had injured her foot, and had
surgery less than two months before the games, the East German women were
heavily favoured to win the distances over 500 meters. But Gennip smashed
the world record by almost 5 seconds to win the 3,000 metres, beat her
personal record by almost 4 seconds to win the 1,500 metres, and was almost
7 seconds faster than her own world record time to win the 5,000 metres
as well. Yvonne van Gennip participated in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo
and in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville as well, but did not
win a medal. She won a silver medal in the 1988 world championships, and
bronze medals in the 1987 and 1989 world championships.
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