Pressure, anorexia and doubt - Marianne Vos opens up in new book

At the Provincial House in Den Bosch on Tuesday afternoon, Marianne Vos presented her new book "Op de Troon" [On the Throne], which chronicles Vos’ insanely successful Olympic year.

The book’s author, Rick Booltink, followed Marianne Vos throughout 2012, which saw a record amount of victories including a World title and gold Olympic medal.

Every race Vos competed in seemed to result in gold but not all was rose-colored in Vos’ world.

In various interviews with Dutch media regarding the book, Vos opened up about her struggles with weight, overcoming shyness and doubt.

"I’ve had some difficult moments," Vos admits. "That story, too, is in the book."

Vos trained obsessively to make her Olympic dream come true and in doing so, was bordering anorexia - weighing only 50 kilo (110 pounds). "I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. I wanted so badly to be the Olympic champion that the training, preparation and discipline became almost obsessive."

Vos said it wasn't easy to bare all and talk about her private struggles. "You want to appear strong like you're on top of the world but that is not always the case," she said. "It's also kind of nice to be able to tell that story."

"Op de Troon" will be for sale starting Friday, but currently only in Dutch.