Thijs Maarten van Valkengoed (born 6 July 1983 in

Lelystad Lelystad () is a Dutch Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and the capital city of the province of Flevoland in the central Netherlands. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who en ...

) is a

breaststroke Breaststroke is a human swimming, swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and ...

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 ...

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 ...

, who competed for his native country at 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, Greece 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 ...

and the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. He trains together with his sister Jolijn in their hometown.

Swimming career

Thijs debuted at the international stage during the

2002 European Aquatics Championships The 2002 LEN European Championships were held in Berlin, Germany from Monday 29 July to Sunday 4 August 2002 at the Berlin Eurosportpark in the German capital. The 26th edition of the event was organised by the LEN. A total number of 786 swimme ...

in Berlin. Van Valkengoed's main achievement is winning the bronze medal in the 200 m breaststroke at the

European Short Course Swimming Championships 2003 The 2003 European Short Course Swimming Championships were held at the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown, Fingal Fingal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, pr ...

Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Earlier that month he had qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics while setting national records in the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke. At the Olympics he was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100 m breaststroke, and in the heats of the 200 m breaststroke.

Overtraining

After the disappointing results in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

at the

2005 World Aquatics Championships The 2005 World Aquatics Championships () or the XI FINA World Championships were held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from July 16 to July 31, 2005. They took place in Parc Jean-Drapeau on Saint Helen's Island. Competition Medal standings :''o ...

it appeared that Thijs had been

overtraining Overtraining occurs when a person exceeds their body's ability to recover from strenuous exercise. Overtraining can be described as a point at which a person may have a decrease in performance or plateau as a result of failure to perform at a certa ...

himself for a long period of time. He had to rest for the whole 2006 season.

Comeback

After his overtraining he decided to move back from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

to Lelystad and started to train with his sister with the goal to qualify themselves for the

2008 European Aquatics Championships The 2008 LEN European Aquatics Championships were held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, from 13–24 March 2008. They were the European championships for swimming (50 m), diving and synchronised swimming for 2008. Two new events were contested: ...

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 ...

. At the end of 2007 both Thijs and Jolijn van Valkengoed qualified for the European Championship in their home country. During the European championships, Thijs improved his own national record at the 100 m breaststroke to 1:01.22 and qualified for his second Olympics. Later on his sister qualified herself for the medley relay at the

. Just days before the Games started, during the training-camp in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, Thijs became ill. Due to the illness Thijs couldn't lower his national record again.

Personal bests

References

Dutch Olympic Committee
1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Lelystad Olympic swimmers for the Netherlands Dutch male breaststroke swimmers Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics {{Netherlands-swimming-bio-stub

Swimming career

Overtraining

Comeback

Personal bests

See also

References