Herman "Flying Dutchman" Willemse (22 May 1934 – 7 July 2021) was a Dutch long-distance and
marathon swimmer
Marathon swimming is a class of open water swimming defined by long distances, with being the unofficially held minimum distance. Routes are typically geographically based or buoy based. Geographical routes include crossings of channels and ...
. In 2008, he was inducted to the
International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.
[
Willemse started his career as a freestyle swimmer, winning 13 national titles and setting 19 national records in the 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m events between 1952 and 1958. In 1959, he switched to marathon swimming and became the second Dutchman to cross the ]English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
, with a time of 12h49.[ Later in the 1960s he dominated the world marathon swimming. For three years after 1964, when the point system was introduced, he was ranked world number two, after Abo Heif.][ His clean sweep of the Around-the-Island Marathon Swim in 1960–1964 brought the organizers to a problem that spectators lost interest in the race. The race was discontinued in 1965.
A school teacher by profession, Willemse was known for his academic approach to swimming. He would often travel around the place before the competition and measure the water temperature, to optimize his racing strategy, or even withdraw from a potentially disastrous race if the temperature was too low. He retired from competitive swimming around 1970 and published a book titled ''Marathonzwemmen'' (''Marathon Swimming'').][
]
International competitions
*St. John Lake Swim (1961, Canada, 30 km) – 1st place, 10h 7min[Wennerberg, 202]
*St. John Lake Swim (1962, Canada, 30 km) – 1st place, 9h 3min[Wennerberg, 143–144]
*Around-the-Island Marathon Swim (1961, Atlantic City, USA, 36 km) – 1st place, 11h 14min[Wennerberg, 129]
*National Exhibition race (1962, Canada, 24 km) – 1st place, 6h 38min[
]
See also
* List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
The International Swimming Hall of Fame is a history museum and hall of fame, serving as the central point for the study of the history of swimming in the United States and around the world.
List of the members of the International Swimming Hall ...
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Willemse, Herman
1934 births
2021 deaths
Dutch male freestyle swimmers
Dutch male long-distance swimmers
English Channel swimmers
Swimmers from Utrecht (city)
20th-century Dutch sportsmen