Cees Kievit

As a 17-year-old Cees Kievit, swimming for Eindhoven club “Aegir”, won the Dutch 100 m backstroke title, breaking the pre-war national record in the heats. This earned him a spot at the 1948 London Olympics, where he would reach the semi-finals. Kievit won the Dutch title three more times (1949-51), and bettered national records in the 100 and 200 metres backstroke a total of eleven times. Kievit’s greatest international achievement came at the 1950 European Championships, where he won silver behind Sweden’s Göran Larsson in a time of 1:09.7, his all-time best performance in a long course race. In 1952, Kievit was eclipsed by Jitse van der Veen at the national championships, and Kievit didn’t qualify for Helsinki. Kievit’s final competitive year was 1953, where he again placed second at the nationals behind Van der Veen. He also won silver a medal in the 200 m backstroke at the World Military Championships. Kievit then worked at the research department of Philips in Eindhoven for many years. In 1986 he founded his own real estate agency, which he ran until his retirement.