After a very successful 2002, with bronze in the ITU Long Distance World Championship and bronze again in the Ironman Florida, Rutger decides to update his objectives for the coming years: from now on his ultimate target is a medal in the Ironman Hawaii and the gold metal in the ITU Long Distance World championship. He hopes to realize both objectives by the end of the 2006 season, when he will have reached the age of 29 years. As long as the calendar allows for it, he will also continue to go for the short and long distance champions titles in Belgium.

The 2003 season starts in the same way as the previous one ended: Fantastic! In April Rutger takes the second place in the Half Ironman of California. Tim De Boom, two times winner of the Ironman Hawaii, is the only person he cannot beat. A month later he stars again in the ITU long distance worlds at Ibiza: silver medal, after the bronze of the year before in Nice. After Ibiza, a few weeks of special training are required to prepare for the Belgian Championship Olympic distance in his hometown Leuven. The race turns out to be a "thriller": only 1 km before the finish, Rutger is able to take the lead position from young talent Peter Croes. In the next few weeks Rutger wins the Half Distance Race in Brasschaat (Belgium). the Olympic race in Antoing (Belgium) and the Belgian Championship Long Distance in Eupen, thus confirming that he is currently the number one of Belgium.

After a weeks rest, he then starts with the long preparation for Hawaii. In August he goes to Font Remeu (France) for a high altitude training camp, followed by a victory in the well known "Zwintriathlon" of Knokke (Belgium). After Knokke he goes to Lanzarote (Spain) for a 10 day training in a climate and an environment that is quite similar to Hawaii. Finally on September 28 he leaves for Kona with his training mate, Gerrit Depauw, to finalize his preparation with another two weeks of local fine-tuning. On October 18 Rutger starts as an unknown rookie, but he manages to take the silver medal after Peter Reid. Everybody, including Rutger himself, is surprised by his stellar performance. So, in the first year of his 4-year plan, Rutger was able to reach the first of his two objectives. He will remember 2003 as an incredible year and the year where he became known internationally!