Winning the gold medal at the Olympics is every athlete’s dream. But it meant more for Netherlands’ swimmer, Sharon van Rouwendaal. The Olympian teared up after her win and kissed and pointed to a tattoo on her right wrist – a tattoo of her dog Rio’s paw print.
On August 8, Van Rouwendaal won the 10km marathon, beating one of her close friends Moesha Johnson of Australia and Ginevra Tadduecci of Italy, who won silver and bronze respectively.
According to American daily newspaper, New York Times, Van Rouwendaal said her year started out great but she didn’t care about swimming for about three weeks, following the death of her dog, Rio, in May.
Van Rouwendaal named her dog Rio, after winning the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
In a clip from the interview posted by Instagram account, @WeRateDogs, she is seen saying, “He needed a little operation. And then after that, there were complications. And he was my everything. Like swimming is everything. But for me, the most important is my family and well, my dogs. It’s just my little baby.”
Van Rouwendaal who finished the race in two hours, there minutes and 34.2 seconds, said her world stopped when he died. “I didn’t want to swim, actually, for a few weeks, and I had a lot of stress in my body,” she said.
She revealed it was her father’s words that helped her swim again. “He said, ‘You have to do it for for him. You have to. Just see it like you have been away from him for seven years through competitions’,” she added.
“And I wanted to swim one more Olympics for him,” she added. In the interview Van Rouwendaal said, “So I had a tattoo three days after the cremation and I said, ‘Let’s try it and I will swim for him with my whole heart’ – and I did it – I won for him.”
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), silver medal winner Johnson and Van Rouwendaal who train together and are close friends, described Van Rouwendaal as “the GOAT (Greatest of all time) of the sport”.
The water quality of the Seine has been a major point of discussion before and during Paris 2024. According to the BBC, the marathon had been previously cancelled after tests showed high levels of bacteria in the water.
Another event that was postponed because of the quality of the water was the men’s triathlon. It was held today, August 9.
