Jeanne Van Kesteren

Jeanne Van Kesteren was one of the top Belgian female track athletes of the interwar period. A member of the Bruxelles Fémina Club, she specialized in the javelin throw, in which she won 10 national championship titles between 1930 and 1946. A proficient middle-distance and cross-country runner, Van Kesteren also competed in the 800 and 1,000 metres as well as the pentathlon at the national championships. She won two national titles in the 800 metres (1929, 1935) and finished as runner-up twice (1933–34); in the 1,000 metres, Van Kesteren finished in second on three occasions (1923, 1927–28).

Aged 30, Van Kesteren was chosen as a member of the Belgian athletics delegation to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin where she was one of two women, the other being high jumper Catherine Stevens. There, she competed in the women’s javelin throw event, finishing 11th out of a field of 14 other competitors. Following the Olympics, she remained active in domestic athletics competitions into the mid-1940s, as a member of Club Atalante. Van Kesteren was also an active basketball player in the 1930s, playing in an international match against France in 1934 and winning a national championship title in 1935.

Personal Best: JT – 37.15 (1934).