Maarten van der Weijden swims the 200 kilometers of the ‘Elfstedentocht’ in order to raise money for cancer research. Dutch people are absolutely loving it!

EDIT: Noooo, he got sick shortly after 12 and had to cancel – nevertheless, an amazing effort!

One Dutchman has been swimming into the hearts and souls of the Netherlands this past weekend. Long distance swimmer Maarten van der Weijden started out this Saturday at 4.30 in Leeuwarden on an epic swim throughout the province of Friesland in an effort to swim the full length of the fabled ‘Elfstedentocht’ (11 cities tour) which is normally ice-skated.

He hopes to finish this coming night again at Leeuwarden and all Dutchies and everybody and his dog who read about his heroic effort are rooting for him and cheering him on. Let’s have a look at the live-feed now! (its a 360 feed, so turn the screen a bit to see Maarten still swim)

Maarten van der Weijden is swimming against cancer

He’s doing all of this in an effort to raise money for cancer research. This hero survived leukemia in his youth himself and now takes the country along for this heartwarming heroic swimming tour, raising more and more money for cancer research in the process. The support yesterday was crazy as you can see:

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En hop, daar gaat Maarten: de sluis van Oude Leije over! #11Stedenzwemtocht pic.twitter.com/Eif0QcauJz — Kirsten van Santen (@kirstenvsanten) 20 augustus 2018

En daar is hij, Maarten van der Weijden onder de Wonderbrug in Sneek. 22 kilometer gezwommen, nog zo’n 180 te gaan. #maartenvanderweijden #itgietoan pic.twitter.com/BmYupdv6EB — Geert Gordijn (@geertgordijn) 18 augustus 2018

Onder immense belangstelling trekt @mvdweijden door Franeker. Het donker in. De helle tocht van 45 kilometer naar Dokkum voor zich. Het stuk waar hij zelf altijd het bangst voor is geweest. #Elfstedenzwemtocht pic.twitter.com/zFB5Lv7Y62 — Robbert de Rijk (@robbertderijk) 19 augustus 2018

If you want to help him in the fight against cancer, here’s the website to donate (loving the ‘Iet giet oan tegen kanker’ tagline).

What’s this elfstedentocht that Maarten van der Weijden is swimming?

Basically, it’s a legendary ice-skating tour throughout Friesland through 11 Frisian cities, starting and finishing in Leeuwarden.

It hasn’t been held since 1997, and there’s a big chance that this ’11 cities tour’ was the last one due to global warming and such.

We’ll be following and cheering Maarten on all day, so should the rest of the world, so share this article!

GO MAARTEN GO!

Source cover pic: Twitter – still – Robbert de Rijk

PS. Special thanks to the good people at Stentec (sailing navigation software) for helping out with reporting in Friesland and sponsoring Maarten van der Weijden!