Kromowidjojo won a total of three medals at the European Junior Swimming Championships in 2005 and 2006, in the 50 meter freestyle and butterfly events.
Kromowidjojo's first major tournament in 2008 was the 2008 European Aquatics Championships in Eindhoven. In the 4 × 100 m freestyle, she won the gold medal and with the team: Inge Dekker, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis. They broke the world record with a time of 3:33.62. With the same team she finished fourth in the 4 × 200 m freestyle. Individually she finished 9th in the 200 m freestyle. A few weeks later at the 2008 FINA Short Course World Championships in Manchester she won the world title in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay and broke another world record, again with Dekker, Heemskerk and Veldhuis. After the 100 m freestyle heats she withdrew from the tournament with an elbow injury.
Beijing Olympics
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and a few days before her 18th birthday, Kromowidjojo became an Olympic champion by winning the gold medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle, again alongside Inge Dekker, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis. Their time was 3:33.76; just outside their own world record.[3] The day after she started individually in the 200 m freestyle ending 23rd in the heats. She was also part of both the 4 × 200 m freestyle and 4 × 100 m medley relay teams, which failed to qualify for the respective finals.[4]
Autumn
At the end of the year Kromowidjojo took part in several championships. She started with the Swim Cup Eindhoven 2008, where she broke the national record in the 50 m backstroke long course, her first individual national record, and qualified for the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in the 100 m freestyle. One week afterwards she took part in the European Short Course Swimming Championships 2008 in Rijeka, Croatia. She won two gold medals, in the 4×50 m freestyle and 4×50 m medley relay, and a bronze medal in the 100 m freestyle behind Marleen Veldhuis and Jeanette Ottesen. She also became sixth in the 50 m backstroke.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo (right) and Britta Steffen (left) during the European short course championships 2010 in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
In 2010 Kromowidjojo took part in the 2010 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) winning individual gold medals in both the 50m freestyle and the 100m freestyle, setting a championship record of 51.45. She also won a gold medal as part of the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team alongside Inge Dekker, Femke Heemskerk and Hinkelien Schreuder with another championship record of 3:28.54.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Kromowidjojo and her teammates started the meet with a silver medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, an event in which they were the defending champions. The gold medal went to Australia.
Later during the week, Kromowidjojo set an Olympic record of 53.05 s in the semifinals of the 100 m freestyle. The next day in the final she followed this up by winning a gold medal in a new Olympic record of 53.00 seconds, ahead of reigning world champion Aleksandra Gerasimenya and Tang Yi. In the 50 m freestyle she qualified fastest for the final with a personal record of 24.07 seconds. In the final she completed the sprint double by winning a gold medal in a new Olympic record of 24.05 seconds, again beating Gerasimenya, as well as training partner and compatriot Marleen Veldhuis. Kromowidjojo was honoured for her performances in the 2012 Holland Heineken House in London.
By winning the 50 m and 100 m freestyle, Kromowidjojo followed in the footsteps of compatriot Inge de Bruijn, who won both events at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. The European Swimming Federation named Kromowidjojo female European swimmer of the year 2012.[5]
2013
At the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Kromowidjojo won the gold medal in the 50 m freestyle. This was her first individual long course world title.[6] She also won three bronze medals, in the 100 m freestyle, 50 m butterfly, and 4 × 100 m freestyle relay.
2015
She lost her world title in the 50 meter freestyle to Bronte Campbell of Australia, winning the silver medal 0.10 s behind.[7] She won two more silver medals in relays.
2016
Kromowidjojo qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, her third Olympics, in the 50 and 100 meter freestyle and the 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay.[8] In the relay, the Dutch team finished 4th, the first time they finished outside the medals since the 1996 Olympics. In the 100 m freestyle, Kromowidjojo finished 5th, 0.09 seconds behind the third-place finisher. In the 50 m freestyle she finished 6th, 0.12 seconds behind gold medalist Pernille Blume.
2017
Kromowidjojo competed in the Swim Cup Eindhoven (Dutch Championships) in April 2017 in the 100 m freestyle and won gold with a time of 53.72,[9] also qualifying for Budapest World Championships. The race was very close and in the first 50 m Femke Heemskerk had the lead but in the second 50 m Kromowidjojo overtook her and finished first.
In 2019 she was member[10] of the 2019 International Swimming League representing Team Iron. She had a perfect record of winning all the skin races at each match the team competed in. She also won the 50 freestyle in Budapest and came third in the 100 freestyle. In Lewisville she picked up two second places in the 50 and 100 freestyle.
2022
Kromowidjojo retired from competitive swimming in January 2022.[11] Her retirement was the second in a two-month period by a professional female Dutch swimmer who competed at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games after Femke Heemskerk retired in December 2021.[12][13] Kromowidjojo said to FINA, "I fulfilled my career as a professional athlete. Swimming will remain my passion, but no longer on a professional level."[14]
Personal life
Kromowidjojo was born in Sauwerd to a Javanese Surinamese father and a Dutch mother.[15] She started swimming at the age of three, while on a family holiday in Spain.
She suffered viral meningitis while training with her national team in the Canary Islands in July 2010, but recovered to take part in the World Championships later that year.
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