We want to entertain and inspire
Video: André Kloer
Text: Tim van Erp
Photo: Jon Haywood
When acrobat duo Rik & Aimée learned they would serve together as ambassadors for Pride 2025, Aimée knew this was the moment to be open about the sexual abuse she experienced. ‘If the Pride ambassadorship hadn’t come our way, I wonder if I would have dared to do this yet.’
It’s an intense time for Aimée Tent (27). When when we spoke, she had just come home from therapy. She was still processing the reactions to her candid announcement about the Pride ambassadorship, in which she revealed she had suffered long-term sexual abuse. A secret she carried for a long time and that was kept, among others, by Rik van Selling (28), her show partner and closest friend. But the disclosure also gives her ‘a huge sense of relief’.
“Don’t get me wrong, you never want to make something like that public, but it feels so good to finally be free of that secret,” she says. “I’m proud I shared it. I was scared of what it would do to me. I feared people would stop seeing me as the cheerful Aimée and instead see me as ‘that woman who was abused’.”
Fortunately, that hasn’t happened at all. “I’ve received so many kind, supportive messages. And even more importantly: messages from people who have experienced something similar and feel motivated to share their story with others. ‘If you can be open about this, I can too,’ they write, for example. That was the reason I decided to go public. That openness works! As far as I knew, I didn’t know anyone who had gone through this. Because of that I didn’t fully recognize the burden I was carrying.”
She had already discussed it with Rik; she brought him into her therapy process from the start. Rik and Aimée have been a pair for years – not a romantic couple as some assume: she’s bi, he’s gay – but their shared history goes much further back. To in 2017 they were already acro gymnasts at elite level, then still in different formations. They left elite sport behind until 2021, when they decided to give the duo a second chance. They went on to win Dutch national gold. In 2023 they said goodbye to competitive sport and continued as a show duo. Again successfully: that same year they won RTL 4 talent show Holland’s Got Talent. The two are therefore not only talented colleagues, but also best friends.
“When Rik and I discussed how we wanted to shape our Pride ambassadorship, it opened doors for me,” says Aimée. “We concluded that our connection to the theme LOVE is primarily ‘self-love’. That led me to decide to share my secret with the world. I probably would have done it eventually, but if the Pride ambassadorship hadn’t come our way, I wonder if I would have dared to do it now.”
Not good enough
The theme of self-love also appears in the hidden love messages in their Pride portrait. Aimée wears pink lipstick in it, a form of self-expression for her. “As a teenager I tried it out sometimes. I liked how it looked, but at school people thought it was over the top or too sexual. I didn’t dare wear it for a long time because I was afraid of what others would think. Now I finally dare — it’s been quite a journey.”
Rik recognizes that: he wears nail polish. Also something he didn’t dare to do for a long time. “As a child I already painted my nails. Then I was cruelly laughed at. Only in the final of Holland’s Got Talent did I dare to do it again for the first time, live on TV. There was even a close-up shot of our hands during the performance in the broadcast, which made it feel like a powerful statement. Self-love is a difficult topic for me. I didn’t know it for a long time. At the moment I’m working on growing into it as much as possible.”
Their sporting career shaped Rik and Aimée in that respect. “Acrogym is a sport of perfection,” Aimée explains. “You always feel like you’re not good enough. Rik and I have managed to repair some of the damage in that area, but those old thoughts still resurface. For example after our HGT-win. Back then we thought: how did we even win? Only later did we realise: maybe we’re just good at what we do.”
Rik adds: “If you train at such a high level, you’re forced to live automatically. You switch yourself off because you’re told what to do: train, go to bed on time, don’t drink, don’t party. Normally as a child you develop your own ‘self’; for me that simply didn’t happen.” It also created a divide between them and classmates, says Aimée. “First of all you have very little time for friends. And you find little connection with non-elite athletes, because most kids are into very different things. At a younger age that’s playing outside; as a teenager it becomes going out, drinking and hanging out.” Rik: “Besides, few people understand exactly what you do. When if you play football at a high level, that’s different. With acrogym people mostly imagine tight glitter outfits.”
Laughter is allowed
When they made their comeback to elite sport in 2021, they therefore approached it very differently. “We wanted to show the new generation of acrogymnasts: it can be done another way. We trained ‘only’ twice a week and still won gold at the Dutch nationals. And you can check in with other athletes about how they’re doing, or have fun and laugh with them. That hardly happened in our time.”
A ‘stupid rule’, Aimée calls it — not being allowed to laugh on the acrogym floor. “I was once punished because I got the giggles; the coach shouted at me from the other side of the hall. Even though I’d been working so hard all day! Nowadays Rik and I regularly go to a party together, which was unthinkable back then. Of course, we still have to make responsible choices and can’t get plastered. But we no longer have to choose strictly between one or the other.”
As ambassadors, Rik and Aimée have several important themes they want to address, but they will of course also perform. That brings some logistical challenges, because one of those performances will take place on a boat during the Canal Parade. “We’ve performed in many unusual places,” says Aimée. “An ice rink, a boxing ring, a horse arena. But never on a boat. We’ll have to figure out exactly how to do it, because if Rik throws me up while the boat keeps moving, I won’t land in the right spot. Still, we love a challenge.” Being asked to perform as a duo is very meaningful to them. Aimée: “We connect a lot with both Pride itself and this year’s theme, and as best friends it’s incredibly special to be asked to represent that together. In terms of self-love, Rik and I may not be there completely yet, but we’re working hard and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. We want to take others along on our journey and hope to touch people. We want to entertain and inspire.”
Pride ambassador since 2025
