22-cities swim: why I stopped
Why one more time: the 22-cities swim
One more time, because I didn't want the story to end with all the suffering. After the Elfstedentriatlon, the divorce, Sebastiaan's death and my father's decline, I wanted one more long swim. Not out of survivor's guilt, but as a way to close things off. One last, longest swim. From Vught to the Princess Máxima Center, 270 kilometres past twenty-two cities. Specifically for research into the late effects of childhood cancer treatment. Because 75 percent of the children who survive cancer later get serious side effects. That deserves attention.
The start in Vught
On 17 August 2026 I dived into the water. Iris and Sameo gave the starting signal. I know Iris from the triathlon; she had just been treated at the Máxima. Sameo had stayed smaller because of his leukaemia. They were standing there, and I thought: this is what it is about.
The first days went more easily than expected. No sore muscles, lots of people on the banks, especially in Oisterwijk, Tilburg and Oosterhout. We quickly raised thirty thousand euros after a radio broadcast. I thought: maybe this will become bigger than we had dared to hope.
Ill in the water
Then came the stomach flu. In the middle of the night, stomach cramps, vomiting, fever. The next morning my team wanted to talk me into the water. "You can do it." But I felt really ill. For the first time I said: not today. We'll see again tomorrow. It felt as if I was letting everyone down. People were ready and waiting. Fewer donations would come in. Stephan came over and said I was leaving my team in the lurch. I nearly cracked. I talked about the guilt I have been carrying for years. About Sebastiaan. About always having to do more. And then they hugged me.
Stopping at the lock in Oudewater
The next day I went again. I shot along with the current. In Schoonhoven the quays were packed. But the fever came back, the nausea got worse, I was eating too little. At the lock in Oudewater I felt: this is enough. I didn't stop dramatically, but quietly, with my team. "We've had a great week." Bart cried with happiness. We had already raised well over half a million.
Deciding my own limit
Looking back, what I mostly feel is calm. Not because I reached the finish, because I didn't, but because for the first time I really decided for myself where my limit was. Not my coaches, not the media, not the guilt. Me. And that turned out to be enough.
For everyone who works in a team or an organisation: you are allowed to stop when it is enough. You are allowed to choose rest instead of pushing on to the very end. And sometimes that is exactly the choice that makes the story better than carrying on ever could have.
On 26 August 2026, in the end, more than €704,000 went to the Princess Máxima Center. Maarten wrote about stopping, guilt and compassion in his book De laatste slag (in Dutch): read why he wrote it or order a signed copy. Organisers can also hear this story live in a keynote.