Elisa ("Elly") Maria van Hulst (born 9 June 1959) is a former middle distance runner from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. She competed in the 800 m and 1500 m events at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

and in the 1500 m and 3000 m at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

; her best achievement was ninth place in the 3000 m in 1988. During her career she set one world record, on 4 March 1989 at the 1989 European Indoor Championships in Athletics in the 3000 m event (8:33.82), as well as three national records: in the mile (1986, 4:22.40), 1500 m (1987, 4:03.63) and 3000 m (1988, 8:33.97). In 1989 she was named Dutch Sportswoman of the Year. She started training in

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, but had a limited success because of her height. At age 11 she started training in athletics, together with her elder brother. When she was in high school, she moved from

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Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...

. There she started a long-term training program with her coach Theo Kersten. Although her trainer was 13 years older, they got involved into a romantic relationship and later got married. Elly van Hulst's career would last for almost twenty years and bring her 65 national, three European and two world titles. On the 3000 m indoor, she held the world record for twelve years. She participated in the

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and the

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. At the end of the 1980s Van Hulst showed that she was among the best athletes in the world. In 1988 she defeated

Mary Decker Mary Teresa Slaney (formerly Tabb, Married and maiden names, née Decker, born August 4, 1958) is an American retired middle-distance and long-distance runner. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 metres, 1500 meters and 3000 metr ...

, favorite for the 3000 m victory in

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. In 1990, Van Hulst began having strange physical complaints and was tired frequently. Doctors were unable to find anything that caused her symptoms, and so she kept on running. Eventually Van Hulst could not participate in the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

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, because she was in the hospital for medical tests. It was discovered that she had a serious viral infection, and had had it for two years. As a result of the viral infection, she got exercise-induced asthma. However, because her asthma was easily controlled, her career was apparently unaffected. Just before the European Championships in 1994 in

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, she heard that one of the ingredients of her medication was on the list of banned substances. A permitted alternative was not effective. As a result, she ended up in ninth place in Paris. Two years later, the ingredient in question was found to be harmless and was removed from the list of banned substances, but this change came too late for Van Hulst: she was not able to participate in the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

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. During her successful years, Van Hulst trained in the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

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. She loved this place and later, when her career had ended, moved there. Nowadays she runs a real estate business, Elly van Hulst Real Estate Lda, together with her husband.Welcome to the Elly van Hulst Web Site, Algarve, Portugal
Property-runner.com. Retrieved on 2013-10-25.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hulst, Elly Van 1959 births Living people Dutch female middle-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for the Netherlands People from Culemborg World Athletics Indoor Championships winners Athletes from Gelderland 20th-century Dutch sportswomen