Elco van der Geest

Elco van der Geest (born 4 May 1979 in Haarlem, North Holland) is a Dutch-born Belgian judoka. Throughout his career, Elco had competed for the Netherlands. In August 2009, Elco accepted the request to join the Belgian team. He achieved Belgian citizenship right before the 2009 World Judo Championships in Rotterdam.

In this Dutch name, the surname is Van der Geest, not Geest.

Elco van der Geest

Personal information
Born	(1979-05-04) 4 May 1979 (age 45)
Occupation	Judoka
Sport
Country	Netherlands (1994–2009) Belgium (2009–2012)
Sport	Judo
Weight class	‍–‍90 kg, ‍–‍100 kg
Achievements and titles
Olympic Games	5th (2004)
World Champ.	5th (2011)
European Champ.	(2002, 2010)
Medal record Men's judo Representing  Belgium European Championships 2010 Vienna ‍–‍100 kg IJF Grand Slam 2010 Paris ‍–‍100 kg 2010 Rio de Janeiro ‍–‍100 kg 2011 Rio de Janeiro ‍–‍100 kg IJF Grand Prix 2010 Düsseldorf ‍–‍100 kg Representing  Netherlands European Championships 2002 Maribor ‍–‍100 kg 2003 Düsseldorf ‍–‍100 kg 2001 Paris ‍–‍100 kg IJF Grand Slam 2009 Rio de Janeiro ‍–‍100 kg IJF Grand Prix 2009 Tunis ‍–‍100 kg World Juniors Championships 1998 Cali ‍–‍90 kg
Profile at external databases
IJF	746, 946
JudoInside.com	36
Updated on 15 November 2022

van der Geest is the son of coach Cor van der Geest (nl) and a younger brother of Dennis who is also a judoka competing on the highest level.

According to International Judo Federation's World Ranking List, as of June 2010, van der Geest is rank at the number-two spot under Takamasa Anai of Japan.

van der Geest has twice competed at the Olympics, once for the Netherlands in 2004 losing to Ihar Makarau in the semi-finals, and then to Ariel Ze'evi in the bronze medal match, and then in 2012 where he lost to eventual gold medalist Tagir Khaibulaev in the first round.^[1][2]

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Place	Weight class
2010	European Judo Championships	1st	Half heavyweight (100 kg)
2007	European Judo Championships	5th	Half heavyweight (100 kg)
2005	European Judo Championships	5th	Half heavyweight (100 kg)
2004	Olympic Games	5th	Half heavyweight (100 kg)
2003	European Judo Championships	2nd	Half heavyweight (100 kg)
2002	European Judo Championships	1st	Half heavyweight (100 kg)
2001	European Judo Championships	3rd	Half heavyweight (100 kg)