Speaker Maarten van der Weijden

Athlete, Experience expert

1 hour

NL

Mental health,
Olympics,
Performance,
Top sport

Inspire,
Motivate,
Winning

"Accept bad luck, live your life and connect!"

Unfortunately, you cannot always win and setbacks are also part of life. Unfortunately, Maarten van der Weijden also had to deal with this due to his illness. But Maarten himself says: "accept bad luck, live your life and connect!". Maarten would love to tell you more about this, so apply now!

Maarten van der Weijden managed to qualify for the World Open Water Swimming Championships in Hawaii at the age of 19. He finished ninth there. Everything pointed to a great swimming career. But unfortunately, a cancer diagnosis threw a spanner in the works. The chances of recovery were unclear. Therefore, Maarten van der Wijden actually wanted to throw in the towel and quit his career. But, after successful treatments, Maarten recovered and then picked up swimming again. Within three years of the diagnosis, Maarten was already swimming again at a professional level.

In the following years Maarten achieved many successes at NKs, European Championships and World Championships. During the World Championships, Maarten won a Gold medal in the 25 km open water swim. He also qualified for the Beijing Olympics, where he eventually won a Gold medal in the 10 km Open Water swim.

In 2008, Maarten van der Weijden was named "Sportsman of the Year. Soon after, he ended his career and took a different path. Maarten went to work as a financial manager at Unilever and remained in that position until July 2015. In 2014 and 2015, Maarten van der Weijden performed several times in the theater with the 'Sports Monologues' where he told his personal story in 15 minutes. In the 2016/2017 theater season, Maarten was in the theater again with his own theater tour 'Better'.

After his own experiences as a cancer patient, Maarten has been committed to cancer research for years. To this end, he set up his own foundation; the Maarten van der Weijden Foundation. He collected over 11 million euros in one year by swimming the Elfstedentocht twice. During the first time in August 2018, he unfortunately had to give up after 163 km; he could no longer do it. But, on his second attempt, on June 24, 2019, he crossed the finish line after swimming 195 kilometers nonstop in Frisian waters. Both times were widely reported and broadcast in domestic and foreign media.

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