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Atje Keulen-Deelstra
Nederlandse schaatskampioenschappen Deventer dames en Atje Keulen Deelstra - Bestanddeelnr 925-2918.jpg
Personal information
Born (1938-12-31)31 December 1938
Grou, Netherlands
Died 22 February 2013(2013-02-22) (aged 74)
Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight 60 kg (132 lb)
Sport
Country Netherlands
Sport Speed skating
Medal record
Women's speed skating
Representing  Netherlands
Olympic Games
Silver 1972 Sapporo 1,000 m
Bronze 1972 Sapporo 1,500 m
Bronze 1972 Sapporo 3,000 m
World Allround Championships
Gold 1970 West-Allis Allround
Gold 1972 Heerenveen Allround
Gold 1973 Strömsund Allround
Gold 1974 Heerenveen Allround
World Sprint Championships
Bronze 1970 West-Allis Sprint
Silver 1973 Oslo Sprint
Silver 1974 Innsbruck Sprint
European Championships
Gold 1972 Inzell Allround
Gold 1973 Brandbu Allround
Gold 1974 Alma-Ata Allround
Dutch Allround championships
Gold 1970 Allround
Gold 1972 Allround
Gold 1973 Allround
Gold 1974 Allround
Silver 1971 Allround
Dutch Marathon Championships
Gold 1975 Artificial Ice
Gold 1976 Artificial Ice
Gold 1977 Artificial Ice
Gold 1978 Artificial Ice
Gold 1980 Artificial Ice

Atje Keulen-Deelstra (31 December 1938 – 22 February 2013) was a Dutch speed skater, who was a four-time World Allround Champion between the age of 32 and 36.

Biography

Atje Deelstra was born as the eldest of four siblings in a farmer's family. As a teenager she did gymnastics, athletics and basketball, but finally chose speed skating. At the age of 16, she already won a junior title of Friesland and several cash prizes in the Netherlands. In 1962, she married Jelle Keulen (23 November 1931 – 28 July 2011), a farmer with whom she had three children born between 1963 and 1966.

When the Thialf arena opened in 1967 in Heerenveen, Keulen-Deelstra went there to work on a comeback. She quickly made much progress, but she was told over and over again that she was too old. Not a member of the Dutch speed skating team, she won the Dutch Allround Championships in 1970 at the age of 32, beating Dutch skating team members such as Ans Schut and multiple world champion Stien Kaiser. That same year, she became World Allround Champion. More successes soon followed when in 1972, she became Dutch, European, and World Allround Champion, a feat she then repeated the following two years (1973 and 1974). In addition, at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, she won one silver and two bronze medals.

In 1975, Keulen-Deelstra switched to marathon skating and she became Dutch Champion in that discipline five times. She won her last Dutch Marathon Championships title in 1980 when she was 42 years old. In 1997, just a few weeks after having been injured in a traffic accident, Keulen-Deelstra participated in the Elfstedentocht. She died of a cerebral infarction in 2013.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, her daughter Boukje Keulen (born 2 December 1963) also was a successful skater. Like her mother, Boukje went from short track through long track ("regular") to marathon speed skating.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Keulen-Deelstra at important championships she participated in, listing the years in which she won each:

Championships Gold medal Silver medal Bronze medal
Winter Olympics 1972 (1,000 m) 1972 (1,500 m)
1972 (3,000 m)
World Allround 1970
1972
1973
1974
World Sprint 1973
1974
1970
European Allround 1972
1973
1974
Dutch Allround 1970
1972
1973
1974
1971

Dutch National Kortebaan Speed Skating Championships - 1 1969, 1976, 1977

World records

Over the course of her career, Keulen-Deelstra skated 2 world records:

Distance Result Date Location
1,500 m 2:17.2 14 March 1970 Inzell
Mini combination 182.805 16 January 1972 Inzell
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