Mitja Kolia Zastrow (born 7 March 1977) is a Dutch

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

and an

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

medalist. Originally from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, Zastrow was born and raised in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

, near

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

. He became a naturalized Dutch citizen in July 2003, after a conflict with the German Swimming Association. He currently trains at

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

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 ...

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 ...

, with his coach, Torsten Petsch. Zastrow's swimming career has been filled with a series of unfortunate injuries. In 2001, despite being the 100 meter

freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott Laboritories Media * '' FreeStyle'', ...

champion in Germany, a hand injury kept him from attending the

FINA World Championships The World Aquatics Championships, formerly the FINA World Championships, are the World Championships for six aquatic disciplines: Swimming (sport), swimming, Diving (sport), diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water ...

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

, Japan. In 2003, at the

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, Zastrow participated in his first World Championship as a Dutch citizen. However, due to a back injury, he was unable to swim in most of the events that he had qualified for. Zastrow qualified fifth out of one hundred Dutch swimmers to participate in the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Along with

Pieter van den Hoogenband Pieter Cornelis Martijn van den Hoogenband (; born 14 March 1978) is a Dutch retired swimmer. He is a triple Olympic champion and former world record holder. Early life Born in Maastricht, Limburg, he is the son of Cees-Rein van den Hoogenb ...

Johan Kenkhuis Johan Kenkhuis (born 7 May 1980 in Vriezenveen, Overijssel) is an Olympic Games, Olympic medal winning Netherlands, Dutch swimmer. From a young age, Kenkhuis had a strong interest in swimming. In 1998, he won gold medals in both the 100 meter a ...

, and

Klaas-Erik Zwering Klaas-Erik Zwering (born 19 May 1981) is a former Dutch swimmer and an Olympic medalist. He is currently studying MBO entrepreneurship as he trained in Eindhoven with the PSV Eindhoven swim club. His personal coach was Jacco Verhaeren, who is ...

, he was a member of the Dutch 4×100 meter freestyle relay team, which won silver by clocking in at 3:14.36. Zastrow's specialty is actually the

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

. He has been the Dutch record holder in the 50 meter backstroke since 2003. Zastrow has a Chinese ideograph tattooed on his left shoulder. The character is "猴" and means "monkey."

External links

Zwemkroniek online profile

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zastrow, Mitja 1977 births Living people Dutch male backstroke swimmers Dutch male freestyle swimmers Male backstroke swimmers Olympic swimmers for the Netherlands Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the Netherlands Dutch people of German descent Sportspeople from Wuppertal Swimmers from Düsseldorf (region) Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in swimming 21st-century Dutch sportsmen

See also

External links

References