Jopie Waalberg, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Jopie Waalberg

Dutch swimmer

Date of Birth: 13-Apr-1920

Place of Birth: Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

Date of Death: 05-Jul-1979

Profession: swimmer

Nationality: Kingdom of the Netherlands

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Johanna Maria Elisabeth "Jopie" Waalberg (13 April 1920 – 5 July 1979) was a Dutch breaststroke swimmer who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics and was the first woman to swim the 200 meter breaststroke under 3 minutes. In 1936 she finished fifth in the 200 metre breaststroke event, the single breaststroke event until the 1968 Olympics.
At the 1938 European Aquatics Championships in London she won a bronze medal on the same distance. On May 11, 1937 she broke Hideko Maehata's four-year-old breaststroke record by 0.2 seconds (3:00.2).
On Jun 27 of that year, in Zaandijk, she improved on that record by more than 2 seconds to 2:58.0.
She improved her own world record once more on October 2 to 2:56.9.
She further held world records in the unconventional distances of 200 yard, 400 m and 500 m breaststroke.