Dutch Twin Sisters Make History with Silver Medal at Synchronized Swimming World Championships

Feb 8, 2024 at 5:39 PM Update: 2 days ago

Twin sisters Bregje and Noortje de Brouwer won a historic silver medal at the World Championships for synchronized swimming on Thursday. An achievement that they themselves can hardly comprehend. “So much more is possible than we thought.”

Only when the De Brouwer sisters walk towards the podium to collect their surprising silver medal do they see the score of world champion China. Noortje nudges her sister Bregje: “Look, the difference. That’s really nothing, man.”

The 24-year-old twin sisters only had to concede 0.275 to China. “We had not even looked at gold,” Noortje told NU.nl. “We didn’t really come here to compete for medals in the first place. But apparently we did. There is so much more possible than we thought.”

The silver exercise had a turbulent start. When the Dutch duo arrived in Doha, they discovered that the other countries had an exercise with a higher difficulty level. Despite six months of preparation, the sisters decided to adapt the exercise.

“We wanted to show as much as possible, so we increased the difficulty by almost 1.5 points. We had to train that in one day and get it in our heads. We were not allowed to make any mistakes. That did take some tension with himself.”

The silver exercise of Bregje and Noortje de Brouwer. Photo: ANP

Celebrating historical significance at carnival

Despite the tension, the exercise turned out excellent. The De Brouwer sisters write history with the silver medal. The Netherlands has never won a medal in synchronized swimming before.

“To be very honest, we didn’t know that,” Noortje admits. “That is very special. Our sport is really small in the Netherlands. Hopefully this achievement will make the sport more famous and children will start synchronized swimming.”

After the World Cup success, medals of honor at the Olympic Games in Paris also beckon. Although the sisters still have to get used to that status. “We can no longer say that we can’t do it, we have made it happen. We really have to start believing in ourselves.”

The sisters will first have a well-deserved party. “Tonight we are going out for dinner with family, our coach Esther Jauma and Marloes Steenbeek. And we are Brabanders, so we will certainly celebrate this weekend with carnival.”

Image: ANP

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