Netherland’s Ranomi Kromowidjojo: 50m freestyle World Champion
Ranomi Kromowidjojo is one of the most gifted multi-stroke gold medallists Netherland has produced. Her dynamic swims at the international stages allowed her to win many awards and accolades. Kromowidjojo is one of the few multi-stroke gold medallists, who
have the honour of raising their country’s flag at some of the world’s largest swimming championships.
The Groningen born Kromowidjojo made her debut at the junior international level in the 2005, where her competitive based performances allowed her to conquer the events of freestyle and back-stroke. Kromowidjojo, with her dominating performances in the events
of 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 100m back-stroke became the talk of the professional swimming community in the Netherlands.
The 20-year-old Ranomi became the Netherland’s hope of medals at the international stages of the Olympics, World Championships and European Championships. With her continued dominant performance, she entered the world of senior international swimming in
2007 at the World Championships, where she helped her country to capture a bronze medal in the 4*100m freestyle relay. The same year at the European Short Course Championships, with her fast kicks in the 50m freestyle, she assisted her relay team to reach
the podium for the gold medal.
During 2008, Kromowidjojo concentrated more on her training to improve her swimming style, start and turns to see a rapid improvement in her timings. She dominated her way at the trials to represent the Netherlands at the 2008 European Championships in Rijeka.
The young swimmer proved her brilliance in the 4*50m freestyle relay, 4*50m medley relay and the 100m freestyle and pocketed the gold medals in the first two events and a subsequent bronze medal in the 100m freestyle. The same year at the Budapest European
Long Course Championships, Ranomi won the gold medal in the 4*100m freestyle with a brilliant swim.
At the 2008 Manchester World Short Course Championships, she won the gold medal in the 4*200m freestyle as a part of the Netherland’s relay team. Then at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she gave the Netherlands the privilege to defeat the giants of swimming including
the USA and Australia in the 4*100m freestyle relay. The year was marked in the history of the Netherlands, as it defeated the king of swimming in a world record time of 3:32.62 minutes.
This gave a boost to her confidence and she decided to increase her awards collection during 2009. The 20-year-old competed at the 2009 European Short Course Championships in the events of 4*50m freestyle relay, 4*50m medley relay, 50m freestyle and 100m
freestyle. Kromowidjojo won the gold medals for her country in the first two events and grabbed two silver medals in the individual events of the 50m and the 100m freestyle. This was the first time that the multi event champion returned home with four medals.
The same year, she represented her beloved country at the World Championships in Rome and improved their own world record of the 4*100m freestyle relay with a timing of 3:31.72 minutes. With their outstanding performance, the team managed to break the world
record with a considerable distance of one second.
In 2010, Ranomi competed at the European Short Course Championships and for the first time won the gold medal in four events including the 4*50m freestyle relay, 4*50m medley relay, 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle. The same year she became the World Champion
of the 50m, 100m and 4*100m freestyle at the Dubai World Championships.
Furthermore, her increasing dominant performances over the past few years has aroused hope of Netherland’s Swimming and much more is expected from Kromowidjojo at the National trials that will qualify her for the 2011 Shanghai World Championships in July.
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