Love Quote by Inge de Bruijn

"I love to smile" reads like a throwaway line until you remember who’s saying it: Inge de Bruijn, the Dutch sprint-swimming star who built a reputation on speed, swagger, and showmanship. In elite sport, the face is part of the performance. A smile isn’t just a mood; it’s a message.

The intent lands as self-branding, but not in a cynical way. De Bruijn competed in an era when athletes were becoming more than results on a scoreboard: they were camera-ready personalities, asked to be both ruthless and likable. Smiling becomes a quiet rebuttal to the idea that seriousness is the only proof of commitment. It signals control: I’m not swallowed by pressure, I’m steering it. In the tunnel, on the blocks, at the medal ceremony, that expression can function as psychological warfare - the softest kind. If you’re smiling, you’re either having fun or you’re already winning.

There’s subtext, too, about the costs of excellence. An athlete saying she loves to smile hints at a deliberate practice of lightness, a chosen posture against the grind of training and the scrutiny that follows champions. De Bruijn’s career also unfolded amid swimming’s broader era of suspicion and debate; in that climate, a public smile can read as defiance, resilience, or sheer refusal to let the narrative harden her.

It works because it’s disarmingly simple: a tiny human preference that doubles as a competitive philosophy.