Wilma van den Berg
Wilhelmina Catharina Maria Martina "Wilma" van den Berg,, married name van Gool, is a Dutch former sprinter, two-time Olympian, silver medalist in the European Championships and Universiade, Dutch national champion, and 1969 Dutch Female Athlete of the Year.
Biography
Van den Berg won the Dutch national championship in both the 100 m event and the 200 m in 1967, 1969–72, and 1976; she also won the 100 m event in 1974.She won a silver medal at the 1969 [European Athletics Championships – Women's 100 metres|1969 European Championships] in the 100 m event, and a bronze medal at the 1970 [European Athletics Indoor Championships – Women's 60 metres|1970 European Indoor Championships] in the 60 m. At the 1970 Summer Universiade she won a silver medal in the 1970 Summer Universiade – Women's 100 metres|100 m event], and a bronze medal in the Athletics at the 1970 [Summer Universiade – Women's 200 metres|200 m].
She competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics and 1972 Summer Olympics in the 100 m and 200 m sprint and 4 × 100 m relay. She finished Athletics at the [1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 × 100 metres relay|in fourth place in the relay in 1968]; individually, she did not reach the finals.
She had qualified for the semifinals in the 200 m sprints at the Munich Olympics, and the 23.22 that she ran in the quarterfinals was faster than the time in the quarterfinals of the eventual champion, Renate Stecher of East Germany. However, after the killing of 11 Israeli athletes in the Munich Massacre, and the Olympics not being cancelled, she withdrew from the competition in sympathy with the Israeli victims. She said that she was leaving in protest of the "obscene" decision to continue with the Olympic Games. The organizers of the 1973 Maccabiah Games in Israel invited her to join, and she ran as a pacer—not as a competitor.
In 1969 she was selected as the Dutch Female Athlete of the Year. Her personal bests were 11.1 seconds in the 100 m, and 23.22 seconds in the 200 m.