New Delhi: Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands has dedicated her recently won gold medal in the women’s 10km marathon swimming to her pet dog, who passed away earlier in May this year. The 30-year-old clocked 2.03.34.2s to claim her third Olympic medal in as many editions.
In what was a late surge, Sharon snatched the gold medal from the jaws of Australia’s Moesha Johnson in the dying minutes of the marathon swim at the River Seine . A difference of 5.5 seconds is what separated the two long distance swimmers at the podium. Johnson settled with a silver medal with a timing of 2.03.39.7s while Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci took the bronze home.
Speaking after the event, the Dutch swimmer dedicated the medal to her late dog Rio three months after his demise.
“Swimming is my everything, but so was he. When there were complications in May, he died shortly afterwards. Then my world stood still and I wanted to swim for him one more time,” she said, as quoted by news agency AFP.
“My father said: swim one more time and do it for him. And that’s what I did,” she added.
Sharon won her third medal at the Olympics after she won gold in the 2016 Rio Games followed by a silver in the 2020 Tokyo Games three years ago.
Moesha Johnson happy with silver
It was a crushing blow for Moesha Johnson who led from the half-way mark onwards and was out front with the top three having broken well clear of the field going into the final lap. But the Australian said she had no regrets about her approach in the final stages when victory slipped from her grasp.
“Under that bridge, there are these pillars and the current’s really strong coming through it and there was two options and I knew whatever option I took, Sharon behind me would have taken the other one and we just had to fight it out and see which route was quicker or who was stronger and obviously that’s kind of where she passed me into the gold medal position,” the 26-year-old Johnson said.
“But I’m happy with my choice, I’ve committed to it and it’s just such a tactical race and there were so many ifs, buts and maybes that could have happened in that race and to come out with a medal is just, it’s unbelievable,” she added.
This was the first Olympics medal for the Australian on her debut at the Summer Games.
(With inputs from AFP)
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Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands has dedicated her recently won gold medal in the women’s 10km marathon swimming to her pet dog, who passed away earlier in May this year. The 30-year-old clocked 2.03.34.2s to claim her third Olympic medal in as many editions. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
