Mirjam de Koning

Who is Mirjam de Koning?

Mirjam de Koning is a Dutch paraplegic swimmer.

De Koning was born with damaged connective tissue. After her daughter Sarina was born in 1993 she had seven anterior cruciate ligament surgeries. In 1999 she suffered from a hernia and during a back-surgery a nerve was damaged. This left her with a form of paraplegia, hence she competes in the S6 classification. Swimming and wheelchair basketball were her sports, but as wheelchair basketball caused a lot of injuries she decided to mainly focus on swimming. She started to train five times a week at local swim team Oceanus in Aalsmeer. Not much later she was one of the fastest swimmers at her club, being able to keep up with swimmers without a disability. That year she swam seven Dutch national records in both 25 and 50 metres pools.

In 2005 she was ready to take part in the Dutch national championships, but to participate she had to be a member of the national swimming association. Just a few days before the start she became a member and she won four gold medals, breaking all four Dutch national records as well as a European record. The national records were in the 50 m freestyle, 50 m butterfly and at the 100 m freestyle.