Johan Kenkhuis

Johan Kenkhuis ( born May 7, 1980 in Vriezenveen ) is a former Dutch swimmer. He won at the Olympics ever one silver and one bronze medal.

Career

Since his childhood Kenkhuis had a high interest in swimming. 1998 won Kenkhuis at the European Youth Championships two gold medals over 100 m and 200 m freestyle. At the Olympic Summer Games 2000 in Sydney Kenkhuis won a bronze medal as a member of the freestyle relay 4 × 200 m freestyle. He also won the 2001, again as a relay member, a silver medal at the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka in 2001, this time in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay.

2002 Kenkhuis intended to end his career as a swimmer. However, his coach Fedor Hes helped him to develop a different training strategy and motivated him to keep going. Kenkhuis succeeded in sequence to reach the fourth place over 50 m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in 2003 in Barcelona. Kenkhuis was just one hundredth of a second behind the bronze medalist.

2004 Kenkhuis was again a member of the Dutch 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, which also included the float Pieter van den Hoogenband, Mitja Zastrow and Klaas -Erik Zwering at the Summer Olympic Games in Athens. Kenkhuis was the starting swimmer of the team. The team took second place and received the silver medal. In 2006, Kenkhuis announced that he will finish his career as a professional swimmer after the Short Course European Championships in Helsinki in 2006.

Currently Kenkhuis lives openly homosexual in Amsterdam, where he is a member of the swimming club De Dolfijn SPAX. He also trained in XLence swimming club. He is one of four athletes in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, who publicly admitted their homosexuality. Kenkhuis currently working on the Johan Cruyff University in Amsterdam at his graduation as a business and marketing major.