Heleen Aafje Boering (born July 27, 1964 in Enschede

Enschede

Enschede , also known as Eanske in the local dialect of Twents, is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region...

, Overijssel

Overijssel

Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...

) is a retired water polo

Water polo

Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...

 goalkeeper

Goalkeeper

In many team sports which involve scoring goals, a goalkeeper is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by intercepting shots at goal...

 from the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. She made her debut for the Women's National Team

Netherlands women's national water polo team

The Netherlands women's national water polo team is the national team of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was one of the leading teams in the world during the 1980s and 1990s. More recently they claimed the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics...

 in 1984, and was on the squad that won the silver medal at the first official World Championship in women's water polo in 1986 (Madrid, Spain).

Boering competed for her native country at the 2000 Summer Olympics

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

 in Sydney, Australia, finishing in fourth place. Her biggest success came in 1991, when the Dutch won the world title, defeating Canada in the final.