Aquaman: swimming can help you achieve the lean, strong look Olympian Johan Kenkhuis has. Psst ... but you won't have to work as hard as he does to get the results.

It can be, difficult, to appreciate just how much of a feat it is that 25-year-old Johan Kenkhuis has a medal for each of the two Olympics that lads swum in. After all, in the United States water sports haw created heroes for gay men, thanks to out Olympians like swimmer Bruce Haves and divers Greg Louganis and David Pichler. But swimming isn't the glamour sport in Kenkhuis's native Netherlands that it is here.

Thanks, though, to the fact that Netherlanders must get a diploma for swimming skills when they're between 5 and 6 years old, the country produced some of the top competitors in swimming during the 2004 Olympic Games. Kenkhuis's personal drive was boosted by his desire to join in with his older three sisters and brother, father, uncle, and cousins. All were active swimming athletes, mostly in water polo. Eventually he discovered his own talent.

"When I was about 10 years old I found out I was pretty good at swimming," he says. "I won three times in my age group at the national championships and repeated that the following year. Then I reached puberty and wanted to join the water polo team because it seemed like more fun being on a team."

He continued at water polo until he was 15, making it to the national championships with his team. Although he'd never given up competitive swimming, after placing only seventh in competition while being ranked in the top three nationally, he realized he needed to apply himself to the sport more. "I couldn't really cope with that result," he says. "I decided to focus on my swimming and joined a very good team. After that I got my first two gold medals."

Only months later, he says, he "accidentally" qualified for the European Junior Championships. That success inspired the birth of a star athlete: "I knew then that I could do more if I wanted to."

Since his first international meet at 15, Kenkhuis has racked up many medals--quite a few golds and silvers among them. In 1998, at 18, he was part of a world-record-setting 200-meter freestyle relay team. And in 2003 he was ranked number 1 in the world in the 50-meter freestyle.

By the 2000 Olympic season he qualified hi the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle individual events as well as all team relays. He made it to the semifinals in Sydney in his individual competitions and scored a bronze medal in the 800 meter freestyle relay. In Athens in 2004 he competed in the 50-meter freestyle and the 400-meter freestyle relay, tie and the team took home silver in the relay.

"I'm at my best as a 50 free sprinter, I guess," he says with a hint of modesty," but in relays I can do a pretty good 100 too."

This year Kenkhuis has decided to relax a bit and recover from the hectic pace of last year's Olympics, so he doesn't plan to compete in the World Championships this summer. Of course, the concept of relaxation is relative to the individual. His focus is the start of his final year at the University of Amsterdam, where he's studying economics, with a concentration in marketing and communication. And, of course, he'll continue to train but is hoping to compete only in Italy in December at the European Championships. Beyond that, he's open to what time will bring.

"I would like to get into event management, PR, and media eventually. I will keep swimming, but when I finish my studies, I just have to see what gets on my path and will decide from there. It's possible I will compete in Beijing in 2008, but I never look that far ahead. Physically I can go on for another tour years--but I listen to what is in my head and heart."

Photos by Vincent Basler for Thrive