Mien Schopman-Klaver

Career
Mien Schopman-Klaver
Mien Schopman-Klaver in her apartment in January 2016
Full name	Wilhelmina Hendrika Schopman-Klaver
nation	Netherlands Netherlands
birthday	February 26, 1911
place of birth	Amsterdam , Netherlands
date of death	July 10, 2018
Place of death	Leiden , Netherlands
discipline	100 meters , high jump , long jump
End of career	1933

Wilhelmina Hendrika "Mien" Schopman-Klaver (born Klaver ; born February 26, 1911 in Amsterdam ; † July 10, 2018 in Leiden ) was a Dutch athlete . Her favorite discipline was the 100-meter run , but she was also active in other disciplines such as high jump and long jump . At the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles , she took part as a reserve runner in the 4 x 100 meter relay .

At more than 107 years old, she was considered the oldest living Olympian in April 2018 - especially in the Netherlands. Since she was not used as a substitute runner, other athletes were named as the oldest surviving Olympians.

Life

Wilhelmina Hendrika Klaver was born on February 26, 1911, the third of eight children (four girls and four boys) in Amsterdam-Zuid and began her sports career as a gymnast. Already as a child she loved to run and started sprinting in 1927 . In 1928, the then 17-year-old was a visitor to the Summer Olympics in her hometown and watched the hockey final between India and the Netherlands here . In 1930 she read in a newspaper that women were being sought in Amsterdam in order to found a women's sports club together, whereupon Klaver approached the initiator. In the same year this led to the founding of the Amsterdam athletics club ADA , of which Klaver was one of the founding members. In August 1931 she ran her personal record over 100 meters in her hometown of Amsterdam, for which she needed 12.7 seconds.

To her own surprise, she was asked by Olga du Jour , one of the founders of the ADA and full-time secretary at a law firm, to take part in the 4 x 100 meter relay at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles , where she served as Reserve runner of the Dutch women was planned. If the regular runners Johanna Dalmolen , Cornelia Aalten , Elly du Mée and Tollien Schuurman , who had just set a new national record in the 4 x 100 meter relay a few weeks earlier with a time of 49.4 seconds, should fail step in. Due to the global economic crisis and the resulting financial shortage, the Dutch women almost couldn't take part in the Olympic Games. The adventurous trip to Los Angeles lasted a total of about 14 days, including the trip by ship to New York and the train ride on to Los Angeles on the west coast of the United States . While the men lived with a trainer in the Olympic Village during the Olympic Games , the women had to stay overnight in a hotel without a trainer. A career at a nearby school served as a training location.

Mien Klaver did not play: The four regular runners went through the competitions and came in fourth behind the United States (gold) in the 4 x 100 meter relay with a time of 47.7 seconds, Canada (silver) and Great Britain (bronze). The teams of all four nations undercut the world record in the women's 4 x 100 meter relay that had existed since 1928, which up to this point was 48.4 seconds. It is also known that the 47.7 seconds were not counted as a national record because after the first three runners, the time measurement was no longer taken so accurately. Klavers did not take part in the high jump or long jump because the Dutch had failed to register them for this.

As a result of the ongoing global economic crisis, Mien Klaver had to end her athletics career the following year at the age of 22. In 1936 she married the civil engineer Leo Schopman, who had found work in Arnhem , and moved with him to the capital of the province of Gelderland . The couple had a total of five children together. In 1942, in the middle of World War II , the family returned to Amsterdam. Mien Schopman-Klaver's father-in-law owned a few houses here, and Leo Schopman took care of their maintenance and renovation. As a result, he avoided a possible deportation as a forced laborer to Germany. Leo Schopman held this position until his retirement in 1975. The family also ran a delicatessen shop in the Heemstedestraat .

After the death of her husband in 1984, Schopman-Klaver moved into a small apartment in Bilthoven . Since 2008/09 Schopman-Klaver lived in Voorschoten near Leiden. In February 2016, she had five children, twelve grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. After being increasingly forgotten by the public, she achieved renewed national fame on the occasion of her 105th birthday, when reports and interviews were printed in the major Dutch newspapers and she was called the oldest surviving Olympic participant.

Personal best times and distances

100 meters: 12.7 seconds (August 1931, Amsterdam)
Long jump: 5.02 meters
High jump: 1.45 meters

literature

Klaver, Wilhelmina , in: Complete collection of the 39 official programs: games of the Xth Olympiad, Los Angeles, USA, 1932 , ed. Xth Olympiad Los Angeles Organizing Committee, Los Angeles 1932 ( Google Books Snipet )

Web links

Commons : Mien Schopman-Klaver - Collection of Images

Rolf Bos: 'Wat !? Ik naar de Olympic Spelen? Enig! ' In: de Volkskrant . July 29, 2016 (Dutch).; accessed on July 18, 2018
Jurryt van de Vooren: Amsterdamse Mien Klaver is the oudste olympiër of all tijden. In: Het Parool . February 21, 2018 (Dutch).; accessed on July 18, 2018

Individual evidence

↑ Overlijdensbericht Wilhelmina Hendrika Schopman-Klaver. In: mensenlinq.nl. July 16, 2018, accessed on July 18, 2018 (Dutch, obituary notice from de Volkskrant ).
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Leidse Mien Schopman-Klaver (106) is de oudste nog levende olympiër ter wereld. (No longer available online.) In: Leidsch Dagblad . February 3, 2018, archived from the original on July 18, 2018 ; Retrieved July 18, 2018 (Dutch). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Simone Schaller, Hurdler Who competed in 1932 Olympics, this at 104. In: NYTimes.com . October 25, 2016, accessed on July 18, 2018 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Piet Wijker: Ode aan een 105-jarige. (pdf, 1 MB) In: De Vriendenband 65th year 2016, pp. 22–28 , accessed on July 18, 2018 (Dutch).

personal data
SURNAME	Schopman-Klaver, Mien
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Klaver, Wilhelmina Hendrika; Klaver, Wilhelmina (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch athlete
DATE OF BIRTH	February 26, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	Amsterdam , Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH	July 10, 2018
Place of death	Leiden , Netherlands

[1] Overlijdensbericht Wilhelmina Hendrika Schopman-Klaver. In: mensenlinq.nl. July 16, 2018, accessed on July 18, 2018 (Dutch, obituary notice from de Volkskrant ).

[Leidsch_Dagblad-2] Leidse Mien Schopman-Klaver (106) is de oudste nog levende olympiër ter wereld. (No longer available online.) In: Leidsch Dagblad . February 3, 2018, archived from the original on July 18, 2018 ; Retrieved July 18, 2018 (Dutch). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[3] Simone Schaller, Hurdler Who competed in 1932 Olympics, this at 104. In: NYTimes.com . October 25, 2016, accessed on July 18, 2018 .

[De_Vriendenband-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Piet Wijker: Ode aan een 105-jarige. (pdf, 1 MB) In: De Vriendenband 65th year 2016, pp. 22–28 , accessed on July 18, 2018 (Dutch).