Hubertina Petronella Maria "Bettine" Vriesekoop (born 13 August 1961) is a former

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

player from the Netherlands. She was European champion in 1982 and 1992 individually and in 1982 in mixed doubles. She competed at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics in singles and women doubles with the best achievement of seventh place in both events in 1988. Vriesekoop started playing table tennis in 1972, and between 1977 and 2002 played at top level in Europe. She won the European Championship twice and was a Dutch Champion fourteen times in the singles and sixteen times in the doubles. Until 1989 she worked with coach Gerard Bakker, and then worked with Jan Vlieg.

Biography

Vriesekoop was the youngest of nine siblings in a farmers family. Her father died of cancer when she was ten years old.''Nieuwe Leidse Courant'', 13 Jan. 1972
/ref> In 1995 she appeared on the cover of ''Playboy Europe'', and the issue contained an unprecedented 12-page interview with her. The money she received from ''Playboy'' helped her solve financial problems. She retired from competition in 1997, and in 1999 gave birth to a son, but her husband died shortly before that. While training in China she became interested in the culture and then studied Chinese language and philosophy in

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

. Between 2006 and 2009 she worked in Beijing as a freelance correspondent for several Dutch newspapers including

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis NRC. It is widely regarded as a newspaper of record in the country. History was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amst ...

. She was selected as the "Dutch Table Tennis Player of the Century" in 2000 and as the Dutch Sportsman of the year in 1981 and 1985.

Career highlights

;Summer Olympic Games: :1988, Seoul, women's singles, 7th :1988, Seoul, women's doubles, 7th :1992, Barcelona, women's singles, last 16 :1992, Barcelona, women's doubles, quarter final :1996, Atlanta, women's singles, 1st round :1996, Atlanta, women's doubles, 1st round ;World Championships: :1979, Pyongyang, women's singles, last 16 :1979, Pyongyang, women's doubles, last 16 :1979, Pyongyang, mixed doubles, last 16 :1981,

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

, women's singles, last 16 :1983, Tokyo, women's singles, last 16 :1983, Tokyo, women's doubles, last 16 :1983, Tokyo, mixed doubles, quarter final :1983, Tokyo, team competition, 8th :1985, Gothenburg, women's singles, last 16 :1985, Gothenburg, women's doubles, last 16 :1985, Gothenburg, team competition, 4th :1987, New Delhi, team competition, 4th :1995,

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

, women's doubles, last 16 :World Doubles Cup: :1992,

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, women's singles, quarter final :World Team Cup: :1994,

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...

, 3rd ; Pro Tour Grand Finals: :1996,

, women's singles, last 16 ;Pro Tour Meetings: :1996,

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

, women's singles, quarter final :1996, Kitaku-Shu, women's singles, quarter final :1996, Kitaku-Shu, women's doubles, quarter final :1998, Beirut, women's doubles, quarter final ;European Championships: :1980, Bern, women's singles, semi final :1982, Budapest, women's singles, winner :1982, Budapest, women's doubles, runner-up :1982, Budapest, mixed doubles, winner :1984, Moscow, women's singles, quarter final :1984, Moscow, women's doubles, semi final :1984, Moscow, mixed doubles, semi final :1986, Prague, women's singles, quarter final :1986, Prague, women's doubles, runner-up :1988, Paris, mixed doubles, runner-up :1990, Gothenburg, women's doubles, quarter final :1992,

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, women's singles, winner :1992,

, women's doubles, semi final :1992,

, team competition, 2nd :1996,

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, women's doubles, runner-up :1998,

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

, women's singles, quarter final ;European Youth Championships: :1977, Vichy, women's singles, winner (juniors) :1978, Barcelona, women's singles, semi final (juniors) :1979, Rome, women's singles, winner (juniors) ;European Top-12 Championships: :1978, Prague, 2nd :1979, Kristianstad, 8th :1980, Munich, 2nd :1981,

Miskolc Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities and towns in Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, ...

, 2nd :1982,

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

, 1st :1983,

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, 3rd, :1984,

, 2nd :1985, Barcelona, 1st :1986,

Södertälje Södertälje ( , ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Stockholm County, Sweden and seat of Södertälje Municipality. It is also a part of Stockholm urban area, Greater Stockholm Metropolitan Area. As of 2020, it has 73,872 inhabitants. Södert� ...

, 5th :1987,

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, 4th :1988,

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

, 2nd :1991,

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

, 3rd :1992, Vienna, 9th :1993, Copenhagen, 5th :1994,

Arezzo Arezzo ( , ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the Province of Arezzo, province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...

, 7th :1995,

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

, 5th :1996,

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

, 3rd :1997,

, 5th :1999,

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

, 11th

Books

* * * * * * *Bettine Vriesekoop (2021). ''Het China gevoel van Pearl S. Buck,'' Brandt, Uitgeverij, ISBN 978 94 93095 44 1

References

External links

(in Dutch)

ITTF Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vriesekoop, Bettine 1961 births Living people Dutch female table tennis players Olympic table tennis players for the Netherlands People from Hazerswoude Table tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from South Holland 20th-century Dutch sportswomen