Van der Weijden: With patience comes victory

Speaking after his victorious race, it almost seemed like the 25km battle did little to tire Maarten Van der Weijden. He was enthused, smiling, and eagerly cheered home his compatriot Van Dijk as the women's swimmers finished about a half-hour after the men. When asked about his winning strategy, he said: "No, no real strategy, except that I know I can swim faster than these guys in the final 100m. So my strategy was to be patient for the first 24.9km and save something." While some of his competitors have better personal bests for the 1,500m distance, he explained, and other technical strengths, he feels he is strategically-stronger and can use this to his advantage.

Another thing helping him, he added, is his experience with beating leukaemia, with which he was diagnosed in 2001, a revelation that halted his swimming career in its tracks for at least a year as he underwent treatment. "I learned from the cancer period," he said. "I learned to approach challenges step-by-step. I can see that having leukaemia is helping me now: It's making me stronger because everything I go through in life from now on will be easier than what I went through to beat the cancer. The pain and fatigue that you feel in this [the 25km] race, well, I went through that for a whole year to beat the cancer, so, I know I can do it here for five hours [in the race]."

Van der Weijden said he surprised himself at these Championships, where he has been very successful and re-solidified his place among the world's best. First he placed 4th in the 10km and secured himself a trip to Beijing, then he took bronze in the 5km before winning the 25km. "I thought that if I win a medal in one of my three races I would be happy," he exclaimed. "I was the only male competitor to swim in all three events, and I thought it might put me at a disadvantage, but now I'm world champion." Looking towards Beijing, Van der Weijden says it feels awesome to be one of the first Olympic marathon swimmers. "My dream of the last four years was to be world champion, and now, to do my second dream and go to the Olympics is amazing."

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Source: Fina