Ode to Rie Beisenherz | Pioneer and role model within women's swimming

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At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, for the first time we will be competing with almost as many women as men. In 1920, Rie Beisenherz was the first and only woman to compete at the Games in Antwerp on behalf of the Netherlands. Rie was a pioneer and role model within women's swimming.
 

Maria Martha (Rie) Beisenherz, born Amsterdam 1901, was the daughter of grocer Wilhelm Ludwig Beisenherz and Christina Visser. Rie grew up in a sporty family. Her father was a member of the Amsterdam Swimming Club and an amateur cyclist. When Rie was 12, she too joined a swimming club, along with several peers. But De Hollandse Dames Zwemclub refused to admit the girls because of their young age. They then decided to form their own swimming club, the Young Water Rats. They swam in the Heiligewegbad, the AMVJ on Stadhouderskade and also in Obelt's pool on the IJ.
 

In 1920, Rie trained daily to compete in the Olympics. ‘That obviously took a lot of effort before it got there,’ she told the radio programme In the valley of Olympia in 1960. After all, her ambitions clashed with those of the gentlemen of the sports administration. Moreover, no one believed that the Amsterdam girl could achieve the Olympic limit of 1 min.30.2 sec. ‘Nevertheless, one evening at the Ruysdaelkade in Amsterdam, I managed to complete the 100-metre freestyle within the set time.’

Her qualification did not substantially change the sports administrators' minds. ‘I was reimbursed third-class train and four days' stay. My father went with me, but there was no support or care from the swimming federation.’ Furthermore, no one knew that at international competitions it had been the custom for years to dive during the start. Rie only found out when she was getting ready for her Olympic debut in Antwerp. Not being used to diving at the start, Rie had a bad start. But she swam fast. So fast that she broke the national record by a whopping six seconds. Her time 1 min 22.6 sec was good for third place in the first series but she eventually had to beat the American swimmers. So she did not win an Olympic medal, but did take home a nice national record. The federation board initially refused to recognise this new time because it had not been measured in Dutch water. After a great deal of tumult, this was rectified.
 

Rie herself remained level-headed under all the excitement. ‘You can enjoy swimming a lot, as I still do, but it shouldn't become a main thing that everything revolves around the sport.’ Being the first Dutch woman to compete in the Olympics was something she thoroughly enjoyed. In 1928, Rie married water polo player Gerardus Barend Rijke. They moved to the Gooi region. Rie remained loyal to the pool. All her life, she swam 400 metres every day until her doctor banned it. She died in Bussum in 1992.