Yvonne van Gennip

Who is Yvonne van Gennip?

Yvonne Maria van Gennip is 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. She was the most successful athlete at the 1988 Winter Olympics, along with Matti Nykänen of Finland.

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 van 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.