Willy den Ouden

Willy den Ouden

Dutch relay team at 1934 European Championships, with den Ouden in front
Personal information
Full name	Willemijntje den Ouden
Nickname(s)	"Willy"
National team	Netherlands
Born	(1918-01-01)January 1, 1918 Rotterdam, Netherlands
Died	6 December 1997(1997-12-06) (aged 79) Rotterdam, Netherlands
Height	1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	RDZ, Rotterdam
Coach	Ma Braun[1]
Medal record Women's swimming Competitor for the Netherlands Summer Olympics 1936 Berlin 4×100 m freestyle 1932 Los Angeles 100 m freestyle 1932 Los Angeles 4×100 m freestyle European Championships 1931 Paris 4×100 m freestyle 1934 Magdeburg 100 m freestyle 1934 Magdeburg 4×100 m freestyle 1931 Paris 100 m freestyle 1934 Magdeburg 400 m freestyle 1938 London 4×100 m freestyle

Willemijntje den Ouden (1 January 1918 – 6 December 1997)^[2] was a competitive swimmer from the Netherlands, who held the 100-meter freestyle world record for nearly 23 years, from 1933 to 1956.

Biography

Den Ouden was a daughter of Willemijntje Kuipers and Antonius Victor Jozephus den Ouden, a café owner in Rotterdam that was then the swimming center of the Netherlands. By the age of 13 she became the club champion in her favorite discipline, 100m freestyle. Den Ouden first came in the international limelight when she participated at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and won two of the five contestable silver medals in swimming, an accomplishment that attracted wide attention as at the age of 14 she was also the youngest participant. Four years later at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, she and her compatriots Tini Wagner, Rie Mastenbroek and Jopie Selbach won the gold medal in the women's 4×100 m freestyle relay.^[2][3]

However, den Ouden was far more successful between these two Olympic games. On July 9, 1933 in Antwerp, she broke Helene Madison's two-year-old world record on the 100 m freestyle, setting it at 1:06.0. She would improve on this three times, reaching 1:04.6 on 27 February 1936 in Amsterdam. This record would last until 1956 when it was broken twice within ten days by Dawn Fraser and Cocky Gastelaars, respectively. Thus, she held the world record for the top event in swimming for an unequalled 22 years and 8 months.^[3]

Den Ouden further broke the world records on the 200 m freestyle (three times between 1933 and 1936), the 400 m freestyle (in 1934), and the now defunct distances of 100 yd, 200 yd, 300 yd, 400 yd, and 500 m freestyle. She was also the anchor swimmer for the Dutch relay teams that broke the 4×100 m freestyle relay record in 1934 and in 1936. On February 4, 1934, she became the first woman to swim 100 yards in under a minute (59.8 seconds).^[4]

She retired from competitive swimming in May 1937, at the age of 19.^[3]

Her parental house was destroyed on May 14, 1940 in the bombing of Rotterdam during the German invasion of the Netherlands. All her medals and prizes were lost in the event. She fled to the United States and then to the United kingdom, where in 1944 she married the Swedish singer Staffan Broms, the son of a Swedish diplomat stationed in London. After the war she lived for a while in Sweden, but died in Rotterdam.^[3]

Den Ouden was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1970.

See also

• World record progression 100 metres freestyle
• World record progression 400 metres freestyle

References

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