Van Koeckhoven was born in Ghent but later moved to Zelzate. In 1991, she started swimming in a club. Her first international success was a bronze medal in the 200 m freestyle at the 1997 European Youth Olympic Festival in Lisbon. Next year she won two more bronze medals, in the 100 m and 200 m freestyle at the European Junior Swimming Championships. From 1999 she competed in regular competitions and reached the finals at the 1999 European Aquatics Championships, again in the 200 m freestyle. Her best results came in 2000 when she won two European medals and passed the Olympic selection.
In 2001, she won one more bronze medal, at the FINA Swimming World Cup in Paris, and set a national record in the 200 m freestyle (2'00"90) that stood for at least 10 years. However, the same year she had serious food poisoning from which she could not fully recover. In January 2012, having won 10 national titles she retired from competitive swimming. She works as criminologist with the Belgian police and competes in triathlon (since 2010).
References
External links
- VAN KOECKHOVEN, Nina. swimrankings.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:van Koeckhoven, Nina}} 9 : 1983 births|Living people|Flemish sportspeople|Belgian female swimmers|Olympic swimmers of Belgium|Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics|Female freestyle swimmers|European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming|Sportspeople from Ghent