Belgian Pioneer Vanotterdijk Keeps 100 'Fly Crown On Her Head
Out in 26.97, triumph was tangible for Roos Vanotterdijk. A lap later, she stopped the clock at 56.08 ahead of Germany's Angelina Köhler
The first Belgian to win the European 100m butterfly title, Roos Vanotterdijk doubled down with a 56.08 victory in Paris this evening to become the first from her nation to retain the crown.
Out in 26.97, triumph was tangible for Vanotterdijk. A lap later, she stopped the clock ahead of Germany's Angelina Köhler, on 56.39, the bronze to Daria Klepikova in 56.76.
Vanotterdijk, Belgium's Singapore 2025 World-championships podium placer, silver medallist behind American World record holder Gretchen Walsh, had given warning in semis yesterday when she matched Sarah Sjöström's championship record from 2016 at 55.89.
Vanotterdijk was here in Paris two years ago taking 10th place finishes in the Olympic 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly semi-finals.
Last year, she stepped up to three golds and two silvers at the European Aquatics U23 Championships before making her big breakthrough with silver and bronze in the 100m butterfly and 50m butterfly respectively at Singapore 2025 World titles.
She's spoke of how hard she found the mental side of transition from junior to senior in the pool. The body, you can train to get stronger, leaner, fitter, but the mindset is a trickier prospect, she suggested. Learning to relax and trying to enjoy race day and "the process" had been a new skill set, one that helped her win the continental 'fly crowns in 2024 - and keep it this evening.
Although the GDR still tops the all-time medals table from a time of systematic doping on steroids, Germany thirst yet for a gold in the European 100 'fly final since the start of a new era in 1991. Köhler was just 0.31 shy here back in the French capital where in 2024 she finished fourth in the Olympic final a touch adrift a podium that include one of the China-23-go-free swimmers caught up in the scandal of 28 positive tests out down in China to contamination, a conclusion accepted by international authorities in anti-doping and aquatics on the basis of much that came down to trust not hard evidence and uncontested science-based fact.
Roos Vanotterdijk, left, and Angelina Köhler - beginning and end ... photos by Patrick B. Kraemer
The history file below...
