Lieke Klaver
Lieke Klaver (; born 20 August 1998) is a Dutch track and field athlete who specialises in sprint races.

Klaver represented the Netherlands at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She finished fourth in the 400 metres at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. Klaver won the silver medal for the event at the 2023 European Indoor Championships. She also took four national titles. 

She earned six major medals as part of Dutch 4 × 400 m relays, either women's or mixed, including silver for the mixed relay at the 2022 World Championships and gold for the women's relay at the 2023 World Championships.

Early life
Lieke Klaver was born on 20 August 1998 in Velsen-Zuid in the Netherlands.

Junior career
Klaver gained her first international experience at age 15 at the 2014 World Under-20 Championships held in Eugene, Oregon, U.S., where she competed in the 4 × 100 metres relay.

A year later, she reached the final of the 200 metres at the 2015 European U20 Championships in Eskilstuna, Sweden. Dutch women's 4 × 100 m relay team was disqualified in the final there, but their time from the heats would have given them second place in the final.

She was still a junior when she claimed her first senior Dutch national title, winning the 200 m at the 2017 Dutch Indoor Athletics Championships in Apeldoorn.

Senior career

Since 2018, Klaver has started competing also in the 400 metres, gradually shifting her focus to that distance, but without losing sight of the shorter event. In 2019, she won two medals for the 400 m at the Dutch Championships (indoors and out). It earned her a place in the national 4 × 400 m relay team, which finished seventh at the Doha World Championships in Qatar that year.

In 2020, she claimed her first Dutch 400 m title (indoors), staying ahead of training buddy and rival Femke Bol. During this pandemic season, Klaver won also her first Diamond League race, with victory in the 400 m at the Golden Gala in Rome, Italy with a time of 50.98 s, becoming just the second Dutch woman to break the 51-second barrier.

She represented Netherlands at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, competing in the women's 400 m and both the women's and mixed 4 × 400 m relays.

In February 2022, at the Dutch Indoor Championships, she set a new personal best for the indoor 400 m in a time of 51.20 s. During the summer season Klaver lowered greatly her outdoor pre-2022 best (50.98 s) down to 50.18 seconds in the semi-finals at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where she finished fourth in the final.

In February 2023, in the 400 m race at the Dutch Indoors in which Femke Bol set a world record of 49.26 s, she massively lowered her lifetime indoor best by nearly 0.7 s down to 50.34 s, putting her joint 13th on the respective world all-time list. Only two-time Olympic champion, Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, and Bol had run faster indoors since 2007. The following month, Klaver won her first individual major medal, with silver for the 400 m at the European Indoor Championships held in Istanbul.

Personal bests
Information from her World Athletics profile unless otherwise noted.

Individual events

Progression

Team events

Competition results
Information from her World Athletics profile unless otherwise noted.

World Athletics Rankings

International competitions

Circuit wins 
 Diamond League
400 metres wins
2020: Rome Golden Gala (50.98 )

National titles
 Dutch Athletics Championships
 200 metres: 2020, 2022
 Dutch Indoor Athletics Championships
 200 metres: 2017
 400 metres: 2020

Notes

References

External links

 

1998 births
21st-century Dutch women
Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Dutch female sprinters
Dutch Indoor Athletics Championships winners
European Athletics Championships winners
European Athletics Indoor Championships winners
Living people
Olympic athletes for the Netherlands
Olympic female sprinters
Sportspeople from Velsen
World Athletics Championships athletes for the Netherlands
World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists
Athletes (track and field) at the 2023 European Games
European Games gold medalists for the Netherlands
European Games medalists in athletics