Career
Vriesekoop started playing table tennis in 1972, and between 1977 and 2002 played at top level in Europe. Until 1989 she worked with coach Gerard Bakker, and then worked with January Vlieg. Vriesekoop was the youngest of nine siblings in a farmers family.
Her father died of cancer when she was nine years old.
In 1995 she appeared on the cover of Playboy Europe, and the issue contained an unprecedented 12-page interview with her. The money she received from Playboy helped her solve financial problems.
While training in China she became interested in the culture and then studied Chinese language and philosophy in Leiden. Between 2006 and 2009 she worked in Beijing as a freelance correspondent for several Dutch newspapers including National Research Council Handelsblad.
She was selected as the "Dutch Table Tennis Player of the Century" in 2000 and as the Dutch Sportsman of the year in 1981 and 1985.