What a year has it been for our wavemaker ambassadors! Let’s take a moment to appreciate their ambassadorship and recognize their outstanding achievements: From winning Olympic medals, Guinnes world Records and running the length of the Seine river, to winning multiple pitching competition by our ambassadors of Innovation. They all pushed the boundaries and inspired us to believe in goals by working hard!
SPORT
It was an Olympic year which always puts extra pressure on athletes. Dutch sailors Marit Bouwmeester, Odile van Aanholt, Annette Duetz all won gold on the Olympic waters in Marseille. Kitesurfer Annelous and water polo playster Simone van de Kraats both brought home the bronze medal after thrilling finals.
Annette & Odile van Aanholt
Mina Guli
She took on the challenge to run the full length of the Seine river: 848 km to accelerate efforts to restore world rivers, including the Seine!
Dutch sailor Scipio Houtman just missed out on the qualification to compete at the Olympic Games but decided to continue pursuing his dream and train for the next Olympics in Los Angeles. His resilience paid off and his campaign kicked off with a gold medal at the European Championship, together with his partner Willemijn Offerman!
Scipio Houtman & Willemijn Offerman
Another extraordinary achievement was made by eco-mermaid Merle liivand, who will be in the 2025 World Guiness Book of Records! She swam 31.3 miles without using her arms AND AND picking up 35 pounds of Plastic Trash out of the water. Just wow!
INNOVATION
Diana Virgovicova made it to the TOP 50 climate leaders in Canada for 2024 with her startup Xatoms. She and her team develop advanced water treatment solutions to tackle global water challenges through AI and quantum chemistry. Together they won the prestigious ‘Hult Prize’ and won a 1M$ investment!
Diana Virgovicova with her Xatoms colleagues
After winning the UN 2023 Gamechanger Challenge last year, multiple doors have opened for Meinke van Oenen. With her start-up ‘Algaenius’ she made it to the finals of the Philips Innovation award and she also became ‘Climate Mayor’ of the city of Hengelo in The Netherlands.
"We are extremely proud and grateful to be working with these ambassadors. We highlighted the ambassadors above for their extraordinary performances this year but fortunately this team is even bigger. To all our ambassadors and Wave accelerators: Thank you! "
