Ferry Weertman

Ferry Weertman
Olympic Champion 2016
Personal information
Surname:	Ferry Weertman
Nation:	Netherlands
Swimming style (s) :	Freestyle
Birthday:	June 27, 1992
Place of birth:	Naarden
Medal table

Ferry Weertman (born June 27, 1992 in Naarden ) is a Dutch freestyle and open water swimmer . Among other things, he is Olympic champion , world champion 2017 and international German champion 2015 over 10 kilometers, as well as two-time European champion in 2014 in open water.

Career and Success

Weertman learned to swim with babies and competed in his first competitions as a six-year-old. He won his first medal at national level in 2008 at the Dutch Championships. In 2010 he decided to concentrate on the open water stretches. At the 2011 European Youth Championships in Navia , Spain , he won the bronze medal over 5 km. He won the first senior gold medal in an international open water race in June 2013 at the French Open Championships over 5 km in Canet-en-Roussillon . At the World Championships of the same year he was sixth over 10 km in 1: 49: 20.3 hours, just 8.5 seconds behind the winner Spyros Gianniotis (1: 49: 11.8).

At the European Swimming Championships in 2014 , he finished 7th over 800 m in 7: 55.57 minutes (winner Gregorio Paltrinieri 7: 44.98). He was awarded the gold medal twice: He won the 10 km in 1: 49: 56.2 ahead of Thomas Lurz (1.49: 59.0) and the Russian Evgeni Dratzew (1: 50: 00.6). In the 5 km team event he won with Sharon van Rouwendaal and Marcel Schouten before Greece and Germany (with Thomas Lurz and Isabelle Härle ).

Weertman won the first competition at the International German Open Water Swimming Championships 2015 , the men's 10 kilometers, on Lake Constance near Lindau ahead of Rob Muffels from Magdeburg (1: 59.30.97) and Alexander Studzinski from Wiesbaden (1: 59.33 , 29). The 5 kilometers at the end of the championships brought another bronze medal: the new German champion Sören Meißner was three hundredths of a second ahead of Rob Muffels and Weertman came third.

At the 2015 World Swimming Championships on the Kazanka River in Kazan , Russia , Weertman took the silver medal over 10 km in 1: 50.00 h behind the American Jordan Wilimovsky (1: 49.48.2) and ahead of the Greek Spyridon Gianniotis (1:50 , 00.7). In 2016 he became Olympic champion over 10 km in Rio de Janeiro . A year later he became world champion for the first time over this distance .

Web links

• Ferry Weertman about himself , ferryweertman.nl (Dutch)
• Portrait , swimcup.nl (Dutch)
• Sharon van Rouwendaal & Ferry Weertman To Wear Three Diamonds Down To Rio , swimvortex.com from November 20, 2014, accessed July 12, 2015 (English)