Mieke Sterk

Initially involved in korfball and gymnastics, Mieke Sterk turned to athletics as a teenager. She immediately broke several club records and quickly became one of the top Dutch athletes. Sterk won the first of her 20 Dutch titles in 1967, in the 80 m hurdles. This would be her best event, in which she went on to win six more outdoor and eight indoor titles, the last one coming in 1979. She also claimed three national sprint titles and two in the penthatlon. Her greatest international performance probably came at the 1968 Olympics with the Dutch 4 x 100 m relay team that ran 43.4 in the heats, equalling the world record set in the previous heat by the U.S. quartet. Although the Dutch ultimately missed the podium – another 43.4 performance put them in fourth in the final – the time would stand as a Dutch record until 2012. Individually, Sterk reached the final (5th) of the 1970 European Indoor Championships in the 60 m hurdles, and she also won would win a bronze in the pentathlon at the World University Games that same year.

Sterk was not always popular with the Dutch officials: for the Opening Ceremony of the 1968 Olympics, she shortened the official skirt of the official team uniform into a mini skirt (with other team members quickly following her lead). A year later, Sterk refused to compete at the European Championships because these were held in Greece, then ruled by a military junta. In 1976, the Dutch athletics federation tried to suspend her for life after she had exposed sexist behavior of officials, but that decision was overturned in court.

In 1994, Mieke Sterk was elected into the Tweede Kamer of Dutch Parliament, on behalf of the PvdA (Labour party), and her responsibilities included sports. After being critical of the party in a newspaper interview, she was not up for re-election in 1998.

Sterk married Hans van Wissen in 1972, then a sports journalist for the Volkskrant newspaper, and later chief editor of the precursor to the Dutch edition of Runner’s World. The marriage ended in 1988 when Van Wissen became involved with Dutch table tennis player Bettine Vriesekoop, whom he had met at the 1988 Olympics.

Personal Bests: 100 – 11.6 (1968); 200 – 23.5 (1973).