Hello, my name is Lander Hendrickx.

I chose 34 days as the duration of my track because that is the amount of strokes I do per 50m in my favorite races. But I'll tell you a bit more about how I became a passionate swimmer.

I started swimming as a 9 year old because I had too much energy. Quickly I fell in love in trying to improve with every lap, every stroke. I kept doing it as one of many hobbies until I made a decision at age 15. I needed to know how far my talents and love for the sport could take me. After that my focus grew and with daily practices or multiple training sessions a day I was doing what I loved. Some years I made lots of progress and others a bit less but all the work I put started adding up for the long term. Thinking back to 2008 I believe the 200m backstroke victory of Ryan Lochte was what inspired me the most. By 2012 as a junior I was a lot more entrenched into aiming for the Olympic level and then I saw Tyler Clary beat the reigning champion in London. He was a great example of what can be achieved with hard work even when you weren't crushing it at 18 yet. In 2013 my international senior career took off and in 2015 I even got to meet Tyler Clary in the USA at a training competition in preparation for our nationals. It seemed like all those years of training where leading up to one pinnacle for me in 2016 but it didn't. I missed the Rio Olympics by a few tenths of a second so I took a step back in 2017. The qualification minimums for the European Championships this year are closer to my personal bests than last year for the World Championships. After this step-back year my financial support fell away. In Belgium we have to qualify every single year by swimming faster than certain times that are determined by results in prior editions. I will attempt to do this in May at the Open Belgian Nationals. Cracking qualifying standards in my main events will mean breaking all-time national records in the process but I don't have any doubt that these performances are inside of me. My dream is to swim at the Tokio Summer Olympics in 2020 and Glasgow would be an important step in between. I just need to put the pieces together that weekend and prepare. Part of this preparation will be an altitude training camp. From March 26th until April 16th I will be going to the Sierra Nevada training center in Spain for a three weeks with three teammates and my trainer. Through this campaign I want to reach out to my supporters in a fun way.

Donations will be used to pay for flights (400€), travel from the airport to the centre on the mountain and back (50€), the stay at the training centre + food (1200€) and partly my trainers accomadations and travel (200€).

I'm really grateful if you are even reading this and if you could share my story with a friend.

Any participations, small or large, will be greatly appreciated. If you are not in a position to support financially, maybe you still know someone who is.

Let's make things happen this year, I want you to be part of my journey!