Nel van Vliet

Petronella " Nel " van Vliet ( born January 17, 1926 in Hilversum, † January 4, 2006 in Naarden ) was a Dutch swimmer.

Van Vliet was the late 40s of the 20th century to the best swimmers in the world. At the height of her career, she won the European Championships 1947 in Monaco the title over 200m breaststroke. The following year she was over the same distance at the 1948 Olympic Games in London in the Olympic record time of 2:57,2 minutes Olympic champion.

A week after her Olympic victory burglar stole her gold medal. Only after the approval of the International Olympic Committee a copy of the medal was made, which was her hands over on 19 November 2004 from the Chairman of the Dutch Sports Federation NOC * NSF, Erica Terpstra.

In her playing days she set 15 world records. After the end of their sporting careers van Vliet worked as a swimming coach. In 1973, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the international swimming sport.