Swimmer in profile: Gwen Joanne van Beek

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  • All smiles: Gwen Joanne van Beek has her sights set on making a real difference in the sport.

    We catch up with Dutch swimmer Gwen Joanne van Beek and find out that there is a whole host of things she wants to achieve through the sport, some of which may surprise you.

    Gwen Joanne van Beek (NED)

    Club: Sports Life

    Date of birth: August 7, 1995

    Birthplace: Oxford, England

    City of residence: Dubai

    Coach: Konstantin Bushmelev

    Favourite stroke: Butterfly

    Personal best: My fastest was in the 50m freestyle, I clocked 26.26 seconds in the World Cup in Dubai. My favourite event is the 100m butterfly, which I've done in 1:04.

    What’s your earliest swimming memory? My mum used to teach us at the World Trade Centre, so I’d swim then I’d help out. She’d do water babies, but I was like five or six so I’d be her little baby and she’d dunk me in and out of the water and ask me to blow bubbles.

    Favourite swimmer: Ranomi Kromowidjojo (triple Olympic champion from the Netherlands).

    Inspiration/idol: I don’t have idols per se. I look up to Velimir Stjepanovic, who swims here in the UAE. Partially because we have the same birthday and we’ve known each other for a while. My mum also taught him how to swim when he was little.

    Best venue: Hamdan Sports Complex.

    Career highlight/best achievement in the pool to date: Probably the World Cup here in 2011. Also going to the Dutch Nationals in 2010, that was amazing, I got loads of PBs there.

    Toughest meet you’ve ever competed in: In 2009, one of the Hamilton meets. It was three days, Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday. They were so long. It was literally 8 o’clock when we left in the evening. It was the first time I had to do a 400m freestyle in an actual competition and I was so nervous because it was so tiring.

    Biggest dream/goal in swimming? I really want to go to developing countries, or places like Vietnam and teach people there how to swim because the number of people, especially children, who drown there is incredible. So teaching them basic skills would be cool.

    Short-term goals: Going to the Netherlands for university and try to swim for the Dutch national team.

    Favourite meal: Top three would be pizza, Chinese and ice cream.

    Favourite place to visit in the UAE: The beach. Also going to the pool but not having to train, just to relax. And Ski Dubai.

    Least favourite part of swimming practice: Having to wake up at 5am.

    Other sports or hobbies: I love all sports. I love reading as well.

    Coolest person you’ve ever met: Chad le Clos, the Dutch swimmers Inge Dekker and Ranomi Kromowidjojo, and Theresa Alshammar, she’s really cool.

    Favourite sporting moment you’ve ever watched: The London Olympics, where the gymnast Epke Zonderland earned the nickname Flying Dutchman for what he did on the horizontal bar. That was impressive. We were sitting in front of the TV with my aunts and we were like ‘oh my God, oh my God!!!’

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