One of the veteran stars of world swimming is Marcel Schouten. Hailing from the Netherlands, Schouten is a freestyle open water swimmer who, over the course of his career, has amassed an impressive list of championship wins and placings. In 2014, aged just 21, he became European Champion. As part of the Dutch team at 2015 World Aquatics Championship in Kazan, Russia, he took home a bronze medal. In 2018, in Canada, he won his first FINA/HOSA Marathon Swim World Series. Despite his long list of achievements, his proudest moment came when he was selected to represent his home nation at the Tokyo Olympics.

Schouten entered his first swimming competition at the tender age of six. Since then, he has participated in countless national competitions, including Swimcup, the major event of the Dutch swimming calendar, through which he has qualified for several world championships. In 2019, he proved himself in better form than ever when he won the FINA UltraMarathon Swim Series, completing a gruelling, 32km course in Lac Saint-Jean in Quebec in 7 hours and 13 minutes. This was the same lake he had triumphed in the previous year when he’d taken victory in a 10km marathon to win the Marathon Swim World Series. He beat his nearest two opponents by just over one second.

Despite the obvious frustration of the 2020 Olympics being postponed for a year, Schouten’s dedication to open water swimming, and his desire to top his career with an Olympic gold medal, will mean that when he eventually takes to the water in Tokyo, he’ll be one of the favourites to win