I swam with an Olympic legend today: three time gold medalist freestyle Pieter van den Hoogenband! He is Hollands best swimmer in history and one of our most famous Olympians. In 2000, he defeated Ian Thorpe on his home turf in Sydney, Australia to take both the 100m and 200m gold medals while setting new world records for both distances. Four years later he prolonged his title by again winning the 100m freestyle in Athens, home of the Olympics.

Here’s a shocking fact: he swims 100m in the time it takes me to swim 50m – about 48 seconds! So much for feeling fast :-)

I did beat my goal in the HourChallenge though!

Q: How far did Johan swim in 1 hour?
A: exactly 122 laps, or 3050m.

My goal was 2800m, so I did well. I swam a perfectly flat schedule of 10 min per 500m, with 3 rest and drink stops of 30 seconds and a sprint to the finish to make up for the stops. I should learn how to do the cool flip-spin-push off thingy because I loose a lot of time on the turn-arounds.

Goodies?
A nice chat and good laugh with Pieter, the photo above,  a signed water bottle, a medal and a big goodie bag with body care products by Sanex.

Great day – must now eat pasta :-)