Despite successes on the short course, her career did not show a break-through. Friends persuaded her to go to the US and to keep on swimming. De Bruijn was convinced that she had more talents that could still be developed.  De Bruijn qualified for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta but decided not to go because she lacked the motivation and desire to swim. Just two months before the 1996 Olympics, Jacco Verhaeren, her coach, told her to stop coming to the pool. As de Bruijn watched the 1996 Games on television, she cried when she saw what were then her two main events. She said that staying home in 1996 was the biggest mistake of her life. De Bruijn turned her career around when she met Paul Bergen while training for a meet in the United States in 1997. De Bruijn works with Bergen part-time and credits his disciplined coaching style for much of her improvement. Ever since her comeback to the sport, she has broken numerous world records, one after another. Considering de Bruijn's latest results, there is no doubt that the American coach played a major part in her successful comeback.