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Now that the Olympics are over, everyone is taking a look back at what happened- "What are the Top 10 moments?" "Who was the greatest athlete at the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008?" My answer to both those questions is not Michael Phelps or maybe Usain Bolt- my answer is Maarten van der Weijden's gold medal in the 10 km open water swim.
Who is that guy? And how do I pronounce his name? I can't pronounce his name either, but I'll be happy to tell you about him. Maarten was diagnosed with acute lymphatic
leukemia at the age of 19. Given little chance for survival, Maarten was given a stem cell transplant. Bingo! The
stem cell therapy worked. Bye Bye Leukemia! Maarten, now 27, has been off all medication for 3 years.
Read more about swimming's "Lance Armstrong":
Van der Weijden dedicated his gold medal to all who had donated money for cancer research. I am thrilled. Without their generous donations I might not be here, he said. One battle had helped him to prepare for another. The leukaemia has taught me to think step by step, he said. When you are in hospital and feeling so much pain and feeling so tired, you don't want to think about the next day or week - you just think about the next hour. It teaches you to be patient when you are lying in a hospital bed and that was almost the same strategy I chose here, to wait for my chance in the pack. Van der Weijden seized the day, tucked in to the finish lane with a two-metre advantage as his rivals headed across the course and maintained the lead over the final 100-metre sprint. The gold was his, 1.5sec ahead of Davies, with Lurz 0.5sec further adrift. The battling Briton said: His story is amazing and can inspire a lot of people. What he has achieved is phenomenal. -I'm inspired, aren't you? -DM
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