For the next four years, Philips has committed itself as the main sponsor of a commercial swimming team in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Double Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogeband and triple Olympic winner Inge de Bruijn are the spear-heads of the team which will consist of four swimmers for the time being. Klaas -Erik Zwering and Joris Keizer will also be part of the team. The gifted Geldrop swimmer Georgios Dimitras who was a medal winner during the last EJK, will have a learning place for one year. Jacco Verhaeren will be the coach and will end his service with the Stichting Topzwemmen Zuid-Nederland by the 1st of January. It is not known how much money is at stake for the first commercial swimming team of The Netherlands. It is clear that it will be some millions of Dutch guilders.

The things mentioned imply that the other PSV Sydney swimmers to their great disappointment will fall away. These swimmers are Kirsten Vlieghuis, Madelon Baans, Mark Veens, Thamar Henneken and Marcel Wouda.

These swimmers will continue with PSV as usual and use all facilities but their coach will be the new PSV main coach Eric Landa. Verhaeren will be the coach o the new professional team, but will be "detailed" to PSV. After the Sydney Olympics Verhaeren expressed his wish to continue with a smaller group of swimmers.

The swimmers of the "commercial" team will have a fixed salary. Van den Hoogeband signed a four year contract while Inge de Bruijn is signed up for two years, after which she will decide whether she wants to go on until the Athens Games of 2004. Zwering and Keizer each have a one year contract, at the end of this period their performances will be evaluated.

The team will focus on high level competitions such as the World Cup circuit, where prize money is offered. The deal with Philips is almost finalized. The team manager Patrick Wouters van den Oudenweijer is conducting talks with a co-sponsor.