Liesette Bruinsma (born 9 September 2000) is a Dutch Paralympic swimmer.[1] She competes in S11 classification events for athletes with visual impairments. She is the 2016 double Paralympic champion within her classification. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, in Women's 400 metre freestyle S11, and Women's 100 metre freestyle S11, winning two silver medals.[2]
Swimming career
editBruinsma first competed for the Netherlands at Glasgow in 2014.[3] Her first major international competition was the 2016 IPC Swimming European Championships in Funchal, where she competed in six events, and took a medal in five of them. Three of her Funchal medal's were gold: 400 m freestyle (S11), 100 m breaststroke (SB11) and the 200 m find. medley (SM11).
In the same year, Bruinsma made her Paralympic Games debut, winning five medals including two golds in the 200 metres individual medley and the 400 metres freestyle.[4]
The Netherlands did not send a team to the 2017 World Para Swimming Championships in Mexico city, but Bruinsma dominated at the 2018 World Para Swimming European Championships, winning four gold medals and breaking two world records, taking her tally of European Championships titles to seven.
Controversies
editDuring the 2020 Summer Paralympics, Bruinsma raised protests against the victory of Chinese swimmers, the Paralympics organizing committee then accepted her protest and decided to cancel the competition. This has led to huge anger and protest in Chinese social media, especially when the two Chinese swimmers suffered from visual impairments as well. The competition was repeated on 29 August 2021, and the two Chinese swimmers won the gold and silver again while Bruinsma finished fourth.[5][6][7]
References
edit- ^ "Liesette Bruinsma". Rio 2016 Paralympics. Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 22 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ "Swimming BRUINSMA Liesette". Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
- ^ "Bruinsma, Liesette". IPC. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ "Liesette Bruinsma - Swimming | Paralympic Athlete Profile". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
- ^ "帕運｜中國選手游泳撞到人奪銀牌 組委會收到抗議判決賽重比". Apple Daily Taiwan. 28 August 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
- ^ "Swimming - Women's 50m Freestyle - S11 Schedule". Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 29 August 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
- ^ "S11 Women's 50 Free Paralympic Final Protested in Tokyo, Re-Swim Required". SwimSwam. 28 August 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
External links
edit- Liesette Bruinsma at SwimRankings.net
- Liesette Bruinsma at Paralympic.org
- Liesette Bruinsma at TeamNL (archive) (in Dutch)
