Sharon van Rouwendaal

Sharon van Rouwendaal is a retired Dutch swimmer, born on 9 September 1993, who became the leading name in women's marathon swimming. She won the Olympic 10 km open water race at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, took silver behind Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha at the delayed Tokyo Games, and won the same race on the River Seine at Paris in 2024, making her the first swimmer to win the women's Olympic marathon swim twice. She first competed at the Olympics in 2012 in backstroke events. Raised in Soest and trained at Eindhoven, Narbonne and elsewhere, including under Philippe Lucas, she was noted as a versatile distance freestyler and for being the only elite distance swimmer in a country known for sprinters. Her honours include the 2014 European 10 km title, won by 1.1 seconds over the reigning Olympic champion Éva Risztov, and world and European medals in both open water and pool events.