“I will be swimming for the rest of my life because I love swimming!” - Ferry Weertman
Ferry Weertman, winner of the 10km Marathon at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil turned the page following his retirement from swimming in December 2021. The Olympic champion now serves in a leadership role at World Aquatics as the Vice Chair of the Technical Open Water Swimming Committee. The Dutch swimmer, one of only four men to have won an Olympic gold in open water swimming, is now sharing his experience and his expertise in an effort to grow the sport’s image and popularity.
The year after the Rio Olympics, Weertman was the 10km Open Water winner at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, with both wins the result of a love and commitment to the sport. The Dutch swimmer began laying the groundwork for his swimming career a year before Rio, earning a silver medal in the 10km and a second silver in the team race at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan. In the even years from 2014 to 2018 the Dutchman also won a total of five European open water titles.
Weertman, a World Champion and a gold medalist in the longest race on the Olympic programme, became engaged to Dutch sprinter Ranomi Kromowidjojo in 2019. Kromowidjojo owns three Olympic gold medals and one silver medal. She was a member of her nation’s victorious 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and she won the 50m and 100m freestyle sprint double at the 2012 London Olympics. Swimming’s ‘power couple’ was set to wed after the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, but their wedding, like the Olympic Games, was postponed.
When the Tokyo Olympics finally rolled around in 2021, both Kromowidjojo and Weertman competed in what was his second and her fourth Olympic Games. Kromowidjojo retired in January 2022 and their wedding took place in Eindhoven in September 2022 with several Dutch Olympic team members in attendance.
World Aquatics caught up with Weertman to talk about his observations and contributions to the sport he loves.
How do you think that open water swimming has improved since the time of your retirement?
World Aquatics has evolved with a new President and Executive Director and there is really a lot of focus in improvement. If we come up with a good idea for open water swimming we may soon be able to implement it. So now the emphasis is to collect from other swimmers and their coaches what they think would be good. We ask how they do it in their countries, what we can adopt and sometimes what we should leave out in an effort to improve open water swimming.
I'm very happy to give back to the sport that has given me so much. I'm here to try to improve things even if there are difficult challenges. In Fukuoka, we would have liked to race in the afternoon but the water temperatures would surely be above the 30-degree mark. For safety reasons we cannot do this so we have to start early in the morning. The challenge is always ‘Who is going to watch a race at that time?’. That's always one of the difficulties we have within our sport.
I'm definitely impressed with the infusion of new athletes from the pool into open water swimming and also with the speed of open water swimmers. There was a long time when there were just a few that could swim fast in the pool, but now more and more athletes swim under 15 minutes in the 1500m. Which obviously means you are an impressive pool swimmer. It is also good that they still want to put in the time and the effort to come out here and also race in open water. We had three of the five best 1500m swimmers racing in open water events in Fukuoka. This also shows that open water is a sport that is being taken seriously which I appreciate very much.
You are involved in a leadership role. Are there specific contributions you have made?
One of my suggestions was made when I was still swimming. We have it in the 1500m, we have it in ice skating and other sports. When there is a clear mark this is the last round I think is very good for TV, it's very good for the spectators and also for the swimmers. They know for sure that they are in their last lap. So they know “I can give it my all and leave it all in the water”. I think it helps because if you are not 100% sure you are gonna be held back in that last lap. It's just little things like that that can lead to big improvements.
We now have the stroke frequency information, you can watch them. Small improvements that help the public understand the sport and analyze it even better as a spectator.
What do you think can be done to grow the sport and promote its athletes?
I think the next part now is we really need to focus on broadcasting. How can we make it visible for the people that are watching what is happening in the water? If you are in the water it is a beautiful sport but if you don't know what's happening, you are just seeing a lot of splashes and that is not exciting. So how can we show the tactics the swimmers are using, how can we give the people who are watching the experience of what open water swimming is.
What's a favourite open water swimming memory from your career?
To me the Olympics will always be the most important, and rightfully the pinnacle of open water swimming. Being out there and racing to win a medal for your country and for yourself is a special moment. Without a doubt, my best memory of open water swimming was the Olympic gold medal in the 10km on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. But what I also like about the sport is the people I've met during my career. Some are now coaching or like me involved in World Aquatics. They are giving back to the sports as part of our open water family and I love that very much.