Claudia Zwiers

Claudia Antoinette Zwiers (born November 23, 1973 in Haarlem ) is a former Dutch judoka . In 1996 she was European champion and won an Olympic bronze medal.

Athletic career

The 1.81 m tall Claudia Zwiers started mostly in the middleweight division until 2000 and then switched to the light heavyweight division. In 1992 she finished seventh at the European Championships . The following year she won the bronze medal; after losing to Chloe Cowen in the semi-finals , she defeated Portuguese Catarina Rodrigues in the battle for bronze . At the Judo World Championships in 1993, she lost in her first fight to the US judoka Liliko Ogasawara . With three wins in the round of hope she reached the battle for bronze, which she lost to the Chinese Zhang Di , so that she finished fifth. In 1994 Zwiers lost in the quarter-finals of the European Championships to the Austrian Anneliese Anglberger , in the end she won bronze, as in 1993, by defeating Catarina Rodrigues. Five months after the individual European championships, Zwiers won the title at the team European championships with the Dutch women's team.

At the Judo World Championships in 1995 Zwiers lost in the semifinals to the South Korean Cho Min-sun , the battle for the bronze medal she lost to Liliko Ogasawara. In May 1996 she won the final of the European Championships over the Italian Emanuela Pierantozzi . At the 1996 Olympic Games , Zwiers defeated the American Ogasawara and then Wu Mei-Lin from Taiwan in her first fight . In the semifinals she was defeated by the South Korean Cho Min-sun by Ippon, in the battle for bronze she defeated the Cuban Odalis Revé .

1997 Zwiers lost in the quarterfinals of the European Championships against the Spaniard Úrsula Martín . After two wins in the Hope Round, she also won the battle for bronze against Pierantozzi. In 1998 and 2000, Zwiers became a military world champion in the middleweight division. In 1999 she finished seventh at the European Championships . After Edith Bosch represented the Netherlands at the 2000 Olympic Games , Zwiers moved to the next higher weight class.

In 2001 she also won a bronze medal in the light heavyweight division at the European Championships , after only losing to the Frenchwoman Celine Lebrun . At the Judo World Championships in 2001 she was defeated by the Japanese Noriko Anno in the quarter-finals , after two wins in the round of hope she lost the battle for bronze against Lebrun. About a month later she reached the finals at the Universiade and lost there to the British Michelle Rogers . At the end of 2001 Zwiers lost in the final of the military world championships to the Italian Lucia Morico . In the quarter-finals of the European Championships in 2002 , she lost again to Morico, but won the bronze medal through the round of hope. In the final of the military world championships in 2002 Zwiers won against Morico. In 2003 Zwiers only reached fifth place at the European Championships after losing to Morico in the semi-finals and to Lebrun in the battle for bronze. At the Judo World Championships in 2003 , Zwiers took fifth place in the light heavyweight division and seventh place in the open class.

In 2004 Zwiers took part in the Olympic Games for the second time. At the tournament in Athens she was eliminated with two defeats without a win. At the European Championships in 2005 , she took fifth place in front of a home crowd in Rotterdam. At the Judo World Championships in Cairo in 2005, she lost to the French Lebrun in the quarter-finals. After two wins in the Hope Round, Zwiers also won the battle for bronze against the Austrian Marianne Morawek . Zwiers was seventh in 2006 and fifth again in 2008 at the European Championships. In 2012 she was the world police champion.

Zwiers won twelve Dutch championship titles between 1990 and 2010, took second place three times and was third five times.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. Chronicle IV. Seoul 1988 - Atlanta 1996. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-328-00830-6 .

Web links

• Claudia Zwiers at JudoInside.com
• Claudia Zwiers in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )