Dutch veteran Nootenboom finishes barefoot walk in New York

Dutch Afghanistan veteran Anton Nootenboom (1986) will reach the finish line of his walk across America on Saturday. He will then have covered more than 5,100 kilometers across the United States barefoot in 8.5 months, Jeroen Swolfs, the manager of his campaign The Barefoot Dutchman, announced.

On February 17 of this year, Nootenboom began his challenge in the United States: He walked barefoot from Santa Monica Beach in California in the west to Times Square in New York in the east.

Nootenboom, also known as the “Barefoot Dutchman”, undertook this walk to raise awareness of men's mental health. According to his manager Swolfs, this issue is very close to his heart, partly because of his deployment in Afghanistan.

He is expected to finish on Saturday, November 2 at 12:30 p.m. local time in Times Square - after running the final mile to Times Square together with a large group of fans.

On average, the Dutchman walks 25 to 30 kilometers a day. With a distance of 3,450 kilometers covered barefoot, Nootenboom set a new Guinness World Record in Saint Louis in August of this year. Until then, the record was 3409.75 kilometers, set by the Pole Pawel Durakiewicz, NOS reported.

In 2021, Nootenboom walked 3,000 kilometers barefoot in Australia.