Gerarda ("Gerda") Maria Kraan (born 30 July 1933) is a retired female middle distance

runner Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...

from the

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, who twice represented her native country at the Summer Olympics:

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

(Rome) and

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

(Tokyo). In 1962 she won the gold medal in the women's

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since t ...

race at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade. Kraan is the oldest sibling in a family of 14 children. Initially she trained in handball, while working as a police officer, and changed to athletics only in 1954, aged 21. At her first major race in 1958 she improved the Dutch record in the 800 m to 2,16.6. She shaved another 8 seconds from it the next year, and in 1960 qualified for the Olympics, where she was eliminated in a preliminary round. After that she worked hard to improve her running technique and fitness, winning five national titles and setting nine national 800 m records between 1958 and 1963. During that period she also competed in 400 m, 440 yd and 880 yd races. In 1962 she won the 800 m European title with a new European record of 2,02.8. At the next Olympics in 1964 she finished in seventh place in the final of the 800 m.

References

1933 births Living people Dutch female middle-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists Olympic athletes of the Netherlands Sportspeople from Leiden 20th-century Dutch women 21st-century Dutch women {{Netherlands-athletics-bio-stub