Bettine Vriesekoop

Bettine Vriesekoop

Bettine Vriesekoop in 1979
Personal information
Born	(1961-08-13) 13 August 1961 (age 63) Hazerswoude, the Netherlands
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	62 kg (137 lb)
Sport
Sport	Table tennis
Medal record Representing the  Netherlands European Championships 1982 Budapest Singles 1982 Budapest Mixed doubles 1992 Stuttgart Singles

Hubertina Petronella Maria "Bettine" Vriesekoop (born 13 August 1961) is a former table tennis player from the Netherlands. She was European champion in 1982 and 1992 individually and in 1982 in mixed doubles. She competed at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics in singles and women doubles with the best achievement of seventh place in both events in 1988.^[1]

Vriesekoop started playing table tennis in 1972, and between 1977 and 2002 played at top level in Europe. She won the European Championship twice and was a Dutch Champion fourteen times in the singles and sixteen times in the doubles. Until 1989 she worked with coach Gerard Bakker,^[1][2] and then worked with Jan Vlieg.

Vriesekoop was the youngest of nine siblings in a farmers family. Her father died of cancer when she was ten years old.^[2][3] In 1995 she appeared on the cover of Playboy Europe, and the issue contained an unprecedented 12-page interview with her. The money she received from Playboy helped her solve financial problems.^[4] She retired from competition in 1997,^[5] and in 1999 gave birth to a son, but her husband died shortly before that. While training in China she became interested in the culture and then studied Chinese language and philosophy in Leiden. Between 2006 and 2009 she worked in Beijing as a freelance correspondent for several Dutch newspapers including NRC Handelsblad.^[4] She was selected as the "Dutch Table Tennis Player of the Century" in 2000 and as the Dutch Sportsman of the year in 1981 and 1985.^[1]

• Bettine Vriesekoop; 弗里斯科普 (2008). 想念北京. 安徽教育出版社. ISBN 978-7-5336-5092-6.
• Bettine Vriesekoop (2009). Het Jaar van de Rat. Bezige Bij b.v., Uitgeverij De. ISBN 978-90-6005-889-3.
• Bettine Vriesekoop (2009). Bij de Chinees. Bezige Bij b.v., Uitgeverij De. ISBN 978-90-6005-969-2.
• Bettine Vriesekoop (2011). Duizend dagen in China. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Uitgeverij. ISBN 978-90-388-9399-0.
• Bettine Vriesekoop (2013). Heimwee naar Peking. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Uitgeverij. ISBN 978-90-388-9670-0.
• Bettine Vriesekoop (2015). Dochters van Mulan, Hoe Vrouwen China Veranderen. Brandt, Uitgeverij. ISBN 9789492037008.
• Bettine Vriesekoop (2021). Het China gevoel van Pearl S. Buck, Brandt, Uitgeverij, ISBN 978 94 93095 44 1

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bettine Vriesekoop.

• (in Dutch)
• ITTF Profile