Olympic open water swimming champion Maarten van der Weijden will on Saturday begin a marathon swim following the 200 kilometre route of the legendary Elfstedentocht skating race.

Van der Weijden, who survived leukemia as a young man, hopes to complete the distance in three days and two nights to raise money for cancer research.

‘I was looking for a long distance to cover and something Dutch,’ he told broadcaster NOS earlier. ‘Nothing beats this route of all routes.’

Van der Weijden will enter the water at 4.30am on Saturday and aims to finish on Monday evening. The entire swim will be followed live on the NOS You Tube channel.