Kim was born in 1991 in the north of the Netherlands and was seven years old when her parents read an article in which was written that judo was good for children with ADHD. And so it didn’t took long before Kim stepped for the first time on the tatami of Chi-Do Roden. The physical strength of her father, who has a saw-mill, hasn't skipped a generation and partly because of her physical strength Kim was able to win a lot of the regional tournaments. In 2006 she quickly developed herself and became a member of the national team of the Netherlands when, on the advice of trainer Wubbo Zuidland, she started to train at Judo Groningen. Thanks to John van der Meer Kim learned more techniques and besides winning fights because of her physical strength, she also started to win fights because of her technique. In 2007 she made the connection to the European top of her age-category with winning silver at both the European Championships (-17 years) as at the European Youth Olympic Festival. It was 2008 when Kim changed to the judo club Kenamju in Haarlem. With coach Zeger van Oirschot she became in 2010 European and World Junior Champion (-20 years) and she even won as a junior a couple of senior World Cups.

 

In 2013 Kim moved to Budokan Rotterdam. With Marjolein van Unen as her coach Kim became one of the best judoka’s of the world in her weight category under 70 kilograms. Two years later she decided to move back to Kenamju where Maarten Arens became her personal coach and trainer. With him as coach she became for the third time European Champion and she continued being the World Ranking Leader.

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In 2016 Kim was the big favourite to win the Olympic gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. However, Kim got defeated by the later Olympic Champion and because she got defeated in the second round she had no right to fight in the repechage. And so her debut at the Olympic Games turned out in a huge disappointment. After the Olympic Games Kim took the time to graduate from university (she now has the title Bachelor of Education as a teacher at elementary school) and to recover from injuries. Besides this she emigrated to Italy where she is now living together with her boyfriend, the Italian judoka Andrea Regis. During the year Kim is frequently in the Netherlands in preparation for the title tournaments. When Kim is not in the Netherlands or with the Dutch selection abroad, she trains at Accademia Torino which is nearby her hometown San Mauro Torinese. 

 

In the fall of 2017 Kim made a successful comeback after one year of absence. She made clear that she was completely back by winning multiple tournaments and by becoming for the fourth time European Champion in April 2018. Unfortunately she was discovered shortly after the European Championships to have a hernia for which she got successful operated. Now she still needs to have a bit of patience, but early 2019 she will make her return at the competition area and then she can continue with doing what she does best: winning tournaments!