PARIS (Reuters) – Arno Kamminga claimed two silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics in the 100m and 200m breaststroke but the Dutch swimmer’s preparations for the Paris Games have been far from ideal.
Kamminga’s career nosedived when he fell sick and then contracted Covid-19 at the 2022 world championships in Budapest.
Coupled with fatigue and burnout, the Dutchman said he was running on empty as he was forced to pull out of events, taking an entire month off before slowly building his body back to the levels required for professional swimmers.
He went from training for 35 hours a week to barely four hours a week, which he said was physically and mentally challenging.
His diet was also impacted as someone whose intake was 6,500 calories a day when training to fuel up his body after hours spent in the pool.
“Eating felt like an extra chore,” Kamminga told Reuters.
“In the beginning, I wanted to train more because I love swimming, but I knew my body couldn’t handle it. At some point, my body said even four hours a week is too much. I just wanted to do nothing at all and then I had to start back up again.
“That was rough. When you’re not used to it anymore and you have to get back into it, you have to get back to training so much but also get your body up to speed again and get your body used to the volume of eating.”
Kamminga went on a downward spiral during those hard months, spending his days “sleeping a lot” and bingeing on Netflix shows, unhealthy habits for any athlete looking to win gold at the Olympics.
“It all felt like a blur. Those few months felt like a few weeks,” the 28-year-old added.
“When people ask me, ‘What did you do when you were only swimming four hours a week because you had so much time left?’ I say I don’t even remember what I did, because I was really tired and not feeling well.
“I’ve been trying to come back ever since. It’s been a long and challenging road, but I’m still loving every second of it… I’m just in a happy place now, looking forward to racing again and showing what I’ve got.”
The swimming events get underway on Saturday.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Paris; Editing by Toby Davis)
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