Cornelli "Nelli" Antoinette Hariëtte Cooman (born 6 June 1964) is a former Dutch

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

se origin. At the 60 metres, she is two-time World indoor champion, six-time European indoor champion and former world record holder, running 7.00 secs in 1986. She also won 19 national titles.

Early life

Cooman grew up in

in a family together with four sisters and one brother. When she was eight, the family moved to

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

in the Netherlands. She started to play

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and soon got the nickname "Miss Pele". At sixteen, she was discovered to be a very good sprinter during a sporting event at school; thus she began a career in athletics. Three months later, she competed in the European Junior Championships in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

and finished seventh in the

100 m The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

sprint. At seventeen, she won the

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

in the National Championships. After graduating secondary school, she turned professional with Henk Kraaijenhof as trainer.

Professional career

During her time as a professional athlete from 1984 to 1995, she was twice world indoor champion in the 60 m (1987 and 1989), and six times European indoor champion. At the 1986 European Indoor Championships, she won in a time of 7.00 seconds, setting a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

. Because of that achievement, she was elected Dutch Sportswoman of the year. Her world record lasted until February 1992 and still stands as national record. Cooman took part twice in the Summer Olympics for the Netherlands: in 1988 in the 100 metres and 4 × 100 m relay and in 1992 in 100 metres. In 1995, Cooman ended her career as a professional athlete.

Personal bests

International competitions

Trivia

Since 1997, the Nelli Cooman Games are organised in the city of Stadskanaal. At first, these games were only for youth-category competitors, but they grew to be a national A-status KNAU (

Royal Dutch Athletics Federation The Royal Dutch Athletics Federation (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Koninklijke Nederlandse Atletiek Unie'' or ''Atletiekunie'') is the governing body for the sport of athletics in the Netherlands. The federation was founded in 1901. It has been orga ...

) event. Cooman is the honorary chairwoman of this event. Dutch singer Gerard Cox wrote a song about Nelli Cooman to a tune by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooman, Nelli 1964 births 20th-century Dutch sportswomen Athletes from Paramaribo Athletes from Rotterdam Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Dutch female sprinters European Athletics Championships medalists Living people Olympic athletes for the Netherlands Olympic female sprinters Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands World Athletics Championships athletes for the Netherlands World Athletics Indoor Championships winners