Elco van der Geest (born 4 May 1979 in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

) is a Dutch-born Belgian

judoka is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

. Throughout his career, Elco had competed for the Netherlands. In August 2009, Elco accepted the request to join the Belgian team. He achieved Belgian citizenship right before the

2009 World Judo Championships The 2009 World Judo Championships was held in the Ahoy indoor sporting arena in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on 26 to 30 August. Women's heavyweight champion Tong Wen was stripped of her gold medal because of a doping offence, but was later rein ...

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 ...

. van der Geest is the son of coach Cor van der Geest ( nl) and a younger brother of

Dennis Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is some ...

who is also a judoka competing on the highest level. According to

International Judo Federation The International Judo Federation (IJF) is the international governing body for judo, founded in July 1951. Today the IJF has 200 National Federations on all continents. There are over 20 million people around the globe who practice judo, accordi ...

's World Ranking List, as of June 2010, van der Geest is rank at the number-two spot under Takamasa Anai of Japan. van der Geest has twice competed at the Olympics, once for the Netherlands in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

losing to Ihar Makarau in the semi-finals, and then to

Ariel Ze'evi Ariel "Arik" Ze'evi (; born 16 January 1977) is an Israeli retired dan 6 black belt in judo. He had a long and successful career competing in half-heavyweight judo competitions. He won an Olympic bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the ...

in the bronze medal match, and then in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

where he lost to eventual gold medalist Tagir Khaibulaev in the first round.

Achievements

References

External links

* *
Dutch Olympic Committee
1979 births Living people Dutch male judoka

van der Geest Van der Geest is a Dutch surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Cornelis van der Geest (1577–1638), Flemish businessman *Dennis van der Geest (born 1975), Dutch judoka *Elco van der Geest (born 1979), Dutch-born Belgian judoka *Jack v ...

Judoka at the 2004 Summer Olympics Judoka at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Olympic judoka for the Netherlands Martial artists from Haarlem {{Belgium-judo-bio-stub