Marit Bouwmeester: golden girl who kept her teenage promise

Winning a gold medal at Paris 2024 with the Medal Race to spare is the crowning achievement of Marit Bouwmeester’s glittering career. It’s all the more remarkable that she has dominated the competition whilst also being the mother of two-year old daughter Jessie. Behind the scenes it has been a massive effort between the family and the Dutch team to create the environment for Bouwmeester to continue to perform at the highest level.

Looking at Bouwmeester’s results from earlier in the season, such a dominant victory at the Games was surprising. However, everything was not as it appeared. With the ILCA 6 equipment available from a number of different manufacturers, the identity of the builder who provide the equipment for the Games was confidential, a closely kept secret from the competitors. So Bouwmeester deliberately set about racing in events with a slower boat. 

Crazy as the ‘slow boat’ plan might sound, it’s hard to question someone who has won a silver, gold and bronze from the past three Olympic Regattas. One of Bouwmeester’s toughest and newest challenges this time round was finding the right compromise between training, racing and family commitments.

“I think I had a really tough Worlds when I struggled to find balance with the home situation and the sailing, and then I’ve been building since and I’ve been sailing in very slow boats, so I think that’s why my sailing looked less [than it was],” she said. “I stepped into a fast boat for one event in Hyères [Semaine Olympique Française] to see where I was at, and I was quite dominant. So then I stepped back in very slow boats again and kept just building, building, building. 

“Actually I was hoping we would get slow boats here [at the Games] because I was winning races here when we were training in slow boats. I knew that hopefully I could get a bit more pace, and as I soon as I stepped in to a quick boat again it felt good.”

Asked if she would be taking up on the option to purchase her gold-medal-winning boat after the Games she replied: “I think it has already been bought because I’m setting up the Marit Bouwmeester Academy and I think they bought it for an auction so we can use it to raise money for the Academy.”

Now aged 36, professionally Bouwmeester is turning her attention to future generations. “We just try to get more kids into watersports, that’s my focus.” As for any future Olympic plans: “I’m not sure, I’m just going to enjoy this one. It’s been enough for now and I’m going to go back to the family and get some rest. It’s been a tough campaign and I must say a big thank you to my family who supported me in this and gave me the opportunities. It’s a lot of travel and a lot of time being away.”

A particularly low moment came at the World Championships at the start of the year when Bouwmeester finished down in 11th overall. “I think for me to be down in Argentina at the Worlds was the best thing that could have happened to me because I chose to keep grinding away. That’s when I thought, this is the biggest chance for me to win a gold medal, to be down now. When you have setbacks it’s always a moment of reflection, and you either have an opportunity to be the victim or to come back stronger.”

As for becoming the most successful female Olympic sailor in history: “It feels incredible because as a youngster, there was one time when my spot got taken away for somebody else because they said, ‘oh, you’re not good enough, you’re too young, too light. It was the Worlds in Fortaleza [Brazil] and I was 16 years gold, and I said to them, ‘I’m going to be the best of all time.’” Twenty years later, Marit Bouwmeester has fulfilled the bold promise of an ambitious teenager.