Thursday, June 18, 2009

Ambassador Extraordinaire Signs With Blueseventy

SWIMTECHGEEK reported that Olympic 10K gold medalist and open water swimming superstar Maarten van der Weijden has signed with blueseventy as its ambassador extraordinaire.

"We are thrilled to sign Maarten," says Roque Santos, Vice President of Swimming at blueseventy. "I was in Beijing, where Maarten wore our nero 10K suit. It was amazing to watch him take the gold in blueseventy. Maarten is truly an incredible person and his story is one for the ages."

Although Maarten was not considered to be a pre-race favorite by the mainstream media, we had identified Maarten in a pre-Olympic article as a darkhorse favorite based on his training regimen leading up to the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim.

In the August 4, 2008 article, we compared Maarten with 1964 Olympic hero Billy Mills who won a thrilling 10,000-meter run in Tokyo. In the article, we predicted, "...Someone - perhaps Natalie du Toit or Maarten van der Weijden - in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim is going to have a tremendous surge at the end of the 10K swim and go down in Olympic history at the first Olympic 10K Marathon Swim champion..."

Like Billy Mills who has lived his life inspiring others as a true Olympic role model, Maarten's life and exploits are truly one for the ages as Roque describes.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

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