Femke Heemskerk brought to a close a fine career that brought Olympic, world and European titles following the ISL Final in which she was on the winning side with Energy Standard.
The 34-year-old jumped into the pool at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swim Stadium partially clothed at the conclusion of the final in which Energy pipped Cali Condors by 12 points.
Federica Pellegrini – who called time on her own career days ago – was among those paying tribute to the woman who competed at four Olympics,
Andre Cats, technical director of the Netherlands federation (KNZB), also posted an image to social media of Heemskerk going into the water in Eindhoven, saying: “The last dive of @FemkeHeemskerk! Thank you!”
Heemskerk won gold on her Games debut at Beijing 2008 as part of the Netherlands 4×100 freestyle relay team.
She was a member of the quartet who won silver four years later at London 2012 and on top of her Olympic medals, Heemskerk will leave the pool with eight world – two of them gold – and 18 European medals, including three trips to the top of the podium.
There were also seven world short-course titles among a haul of 18 and 14 European 25m medals of which five were gold.
Heemskerk’s astonishing longevity was underlined this year when she won her first individual international long-course title at the age of 33 with victory over 100m freestyle in Budapest.
At the Tokyo Olympics in July, Heemskerk reached the 100 free final where she placed sixth.