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Lewis Pugh

Lewis Pugh

Lewis Pugh is a British-South African endurance swimmer and ocean advocate. Dubbed the "Sir Edmund Hillary of swimming", he is the first person to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world, and he frequently swims in vulnerable ecosystems to draw attention to their plight.

Lewis might be British by birth, born in Plymouth in 1969, his father was Surgeon Rear Admiral P.D. Gordon Pugh, but he has strong South African roots. His family moved from Devon in England to Grahamstown in South Africa in 1980 when Lewis was 10. His grandmother has been a pupil at DSG - Diocesan School for Girls - in Grahamstown, and his sister was sent to that school while he was enrolled in St Andrews Prep and later the College. After his family moved to Cape Town, attended Camps Bay High School where he matriculated. 

He studied law at the University of Cape Town, graduating with BA, LLB, and LLM in Maritime Law degrees. He also completed an LLM degree in International Law from Cambridge University, and in 2022 received an honorary doctorate from the University of Stirling. 

He joined Clifton SLSC where he completed his SPA and qualified as a lifeguard, while at school he swam with coach Paul Barrett-Smith and later as a UCT student, by Kevin Fialkov. In May 1987 he completed his first Robben Island crossing, paced by local legends of the Cape Long Distance Swimming Association Peter Bales and Eddie Cassar.

Lewis met and later married an Afrikaans girl called Antoinette Malherbe. 

For somebody who had come from a macho all-boys school in Grahamstown, the girls at my new school were something else. I fell in love with one in particular: her name was Antionette Malherbe and she was the most beautiful girl in the school.

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Click here to see the Lewis Pugh website and follow this link to read his Wikipedia entry.


In his mid-twenties, he returned to England, where he read international law at Jesus College, Cambridge, and then worked as a maritime lawyer in the City of London for a number of years.  In 2003, the activist left his maritime law practice to pursue his dream of protecting the world's oceans full-time. As he started bringing his cause to the attention of policymakers and leaders around the world, his work was dubbed "Speedo diplomacy". He undertook the first swim across the North Pole in 2007 to raise awareness of the melting Arctic sea ice and swam across a glacial lake on Mount Everest in 2010, highlighting the issue of melting glaciers in the Himalayas.

The activist, who lives with his wife, two step-children, and three dogs in Cape Town, has now been swimming oceans for 30 years and is regarded as one of the world's greatest cold-water swimmers.

As well as receiving France and South Africa's highest honours, the swimmer was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010 before being inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2013.


2011 Married

2011 - getting married 


2017 LewisPugh UCT 5323

On the steps outside Jamieson Hall at UCT, with Table Mountain peeking out in the background.

Lewis Pugh Penny Heyns Ant Stott

Lewis Pugh with international swimming star Penny Heyns and four times Dusi canoe marathon champion Anthony Stott.


 Franziska Van Almsick (L) with Lewis Pugh the extreme cold water swimmer, dubbed the Human Polar Bear, after finishing their race in the Iron Man and Physically Challenged Event of the 2011 aQuelle Midmar Mile Race at Midmar Mile Dam on February 12, 2011 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. (Photo by Michelly Rall/WireImage)

In 2011 swimming the Midmar Mile. Lewis Pugh seen below at the Midmar mile with German Olympic swimmer Franziska van Almsick.


 Lewis Pugh Nam Paddle

Lewis paddling a surf ski in Namibia in 2013. In September 2008, Pugh, accompanied by a team aboard a ship where he slept, attempted to kayak the 1,200 km from Svalbard, across the Arctic Ocean, to the North Pole.

 

Antoinette Pugh: Die vrou agter avonturier Lewis Pugh

14 Des. 2012

 Lewis and Antionette

Antoinette en Lewis Pugh was saam op skool. Jare later het hulle mekaar weer raakgeloop en die liefde het geblom. Lewis, ook bekend as die menslike ysbeer, is onder meer die eerste mens wat in 2007 ’n kilometer in die Noordpool se yswater van -1,7 °C geswem het. Twintig jaar ná skool het Antoinette haar motor in Kloofstraat in Kaapstad parkeer. Toe sy opkyk, het sy Lewis buite ’n wegneemete-restaurant gesien. “Op daardie oomblik het hy geroep ‘Malherbe!’, my nooiensvan.Die eerste ding wat my aandag getrek het, was sy mooi blougrys oë,” vertel Antoinette.

Hulle is drie jaar later, in 2009, getroud. Antoinette was voorheen getroud en het ’n dogter, Taegyn, en ’n seun, Finn.

Antoinette en Lewis deel baie belangstellings, soos oefening en die buitelewe. “Hy is net so lief vir diere soos ek, veral honde.” Maar die eienskap wat haar die meeste aantrek, is dat hy opkom vir dit waarin hy glo, soos sy omgewingsveldtogte. “Sy droom is om groot nasionale parke in die oseaan te skep om die seelewe te beskerm.” Met elke “bomenslike” avontuur wil Lewis die wêreld se aandag vestig op die broosheid van die planeet.   Daar is tye dat sy Lewis maar min sien omdat hy onder meer gereeld toesprake oor die wêreld heen gee, vertel Antoinette, ’n vryskut-grimeerkunstenaar.

“Gelukkig het ek twee kinders, twee honde en my werk wat my besig hou.” Wanneer Lewis nie reis nie, werk hy van die huis af. “Dan haal ons in met wat in elkeen se lewe aangaan.” Die feit dat hy nooit afskakel nie, is een van die grootste uitdagings van hul verhouding. “Daar maal heeltyd idees in sy kop. Hy werk oor naweke, na-ure . . . Wanneer hy vir ’n reis voorberei, is hy baie gefokus. Hy moet hard oefen, baie beplan en borge vaspen. Sy span bestaan uit plaaslike en internasionale mense en hy maak dikwels belangrike oproepe in die nag. Hy sal sommer drie-uur in die oggend wakker word met ’n idee en dan in sy studeerkamer gaan sit en werk, sy Jack Russell agterna, totdat ek opstaan.”

Lewis is in Engeland gebore en het as tienjarige saam met sy ouers na Suid-Afrika verhuis. Hy bly nou ses maande van die jaar in Engeland en die res van die tyd hier. “Soms gaan ek saam Engeland toe,” sê Antoinette. “Maar ek bly meestal by ons huis in Kaapstad. Ek het baie verantwoordelikhede hier. “Ek was lank ’n enkelma, so ek is gewoond daaraan om baie dinge op my eie te hanteer. Lewis se Everest-ekspedisie in 2010 het ons albei egter getoets . . .” Antoinette was vier maande swanger toe Lewis een kilometer oor die gletsermeer onder die kruin van Everest sou swem.

Terwyl hy weg was, het sy ’n miskraam gehad. “Ek het nie geweet of ek hom dadelik moet vertel of eerder moet wag totdat hy terug is nie. Ek was bekommerd dat hy sou wou terugvlieg, maar ek het besluit om hom te vertel omdat hy ’n week gehad het om dit te verwerk voordat hy sou swem. Ek het geweet hy sou andersins aanvoel iets is verkeerd. Ek wou ook nie hê hy moes dit by iemand anders uitvind nie. Lewis was gebroke en wou dadelik huis toe kom. Ek het vir hom gesê dit gaan nie help nie, omdat hy niks aan die situasie kon doen nie. Ons probeer nou weer swanger raak en hopelik het ons vanjaar ’n baba Pugh.”

Tog sal sy nooit wil hê Lewis moet enigiets anders doen nie. “Ek het nog altyd vir hom gesê: ‘Jy moet doen wat jy moet doen.’ Ek bid elke aand dat hy veilig sal wees. Met sy Everest-ekspedisie het een van die fotograwe my gebel en gesê: ‘Lewis het pas ’n toets-swem gedoen en iets het skeefgeloop. Hy kan nie na die foon toe kom nie, want hy kan nie ordentlik asemhaal nie, maar hy wou net hê ek moet vir jou sê hy’s oukei.’ Ek het vir haar gesê: ‘Sê vir hom hy moet my nie weer bel totdat hy klaar geswem het nie. Hy het 49 mense wat hom ondersteun en ek is op my eie.’”

Sy gaan soms saam met Lewis na sy opleidingskampe. “Ek het al saam met hom van die mooiste plekke in die wêreld gesien. Voordat hy by die Noordpool gaan swem het, is ek saam Noorweë toe. Ek het nog nooit sulke koue beleef nie, en dit was somer daar!” In die oggende het hy al halfses in ’n gletsermeer gaan kajak. “Terwyl hy geroei het, het ek langs hom gehardloop en tyd gehou. In die middae het hy geswem en dan het ek hom gemotiveer om aan te hou in die ysige water. Ná elke swemsessie moes hy vinnig in ’n warm stort ontdooi. Ek het hier my eerste gletser uitgeklim en ek was mal daaroor!

“Ek is seker Lewis gaan my nog baie ongelooflike plekke wys. Dis so lekker om saam met hom te reis omdat hy so baie weet van soveel lande. Een ding wat ek sonder twyfel kan sê, is dat my lewe nooit vervelig is nie!”

LEWIS: “Antoinette is my beste vriendin in die wêreld. Dít is hoekom ons verhouding werk.”

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Jane Asher

Jane Asher

Jane Asher was born in the Nkana suburb of Kitwe in Northern Rhodesia in 1931. She grew up in South Africa, where she attended Roedean School in Johannesburg, and completed a BA degree in psychology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. 

Kitwe pool

Rhokana Mine swimming pool Kitwe-Nkana Northern Rhodesia, and the local swimming team (unclear if Jane was in that photo, but it's from the 1950's)

Rhokana


At the age of 22, in 1953, she moved to Britain to take a post-graduate diploma in personnel management at Manchester University. She swam on the university swim team and realized the swimming advantage she had had as a child living in South Africa. The children of Britain did not have the same access to water privileges Jane had, as during World War II and shortly before her arrival, Britain’s beaches were covered with barbed wire, and pool swimming time was at a premium.

As a world-class Masters swimmer, Jane Asher has set 75 FINA Masters World Records in the freestyle, I.M., backstroke, and sprint butterfly events in the 55-59 through 70-74 age groups. She has won gold medals 30 times at FINA Masters World Championships and is the first masters swimmer to ever hold every freestyle record in her age group. She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in the class of 2006.

Jane Asher (GBR)

Honor Masters Swimmer (2006)

The information on this page was written the year of their induction.

jane asher

FOR THE RECORD (SWIMMER): World Points – 1859, Masters Pre-1986 points – 0, Total Points – 1859; Since 1983, she has competed in four age groups (55-59 thru 70-74); 75 FINA MASTERS WORLD RECORDS; 30 FINA MASTERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS; FIRST MASTERS SWIMMER TO HOLD ALL THE WORLD FREESTYLE RECORDS IN HER AGE GROUP – short course meters and long course meters – simultaneously.

Jane Asher was born in ‘Nkana, Northern Rhodesia in 1931, but grew up in South Africa, loving the water and having swimming access anytime, anywhere. After studying at Rhodes University from 1947 - 1951, Jane moved to Britain to take a post-graduate diploma in personnel management at Manchester University. She swam on the university swim team and realized the swimming advantage she had had as a child living in South Africa. The children of Britain did not have the same access to water privileges Jane had, as during World War II and shortly before her arrival, Britain’s beaches were covered with barbed wire, and pool swimming time was at a premium. Jane started to work as a teacher and coach of school children in her area, beginning with the very basics of the sport.

By 1980, she had set up her own private team. While parents waited for their children during training sessions, Jane thought they could spend their time better in the water than on poolside. Thus began the nucleus of the first Masters swim club of the Amateur Swimming Association (A.S.A.) of Great Britain.

Jane became the catalyst and organized the setting up of the East Anglian Swallow Tail (E.A.S.T.) Club for Masters. Many of the swimmers not only were coached by Jane in this new club, they had been coached by her years before in high school.

In 1992, she and a few E.A.S.T. members successfully ran a seminar specifically for Masters. She started a training camp in the French Alps, maybe the first for Masters at high altitude.

Since 1986, as a world-class Masters swimmer, she has set 75 FINA Masters World Records in the freestyle, I.M., backstroke and sprint butterfly events in the 55-59 through 70-74 age groups. She has won gold medals 30 times at FINA Masters World Championships, 36 at Masters European Championships, 6 at Masters Pan Pacifics, and 95 at British Masters National Championships. She has set 76 Masters European Championship records and 117 British Masters national records. She has gold medals at the National Championships of Britain, Scotland, Wales, France, and Holland. When she turned 70 in 2001, she traveled Britain and Europe to try to swim every long and short course event available. The results – she broke all the British records and a whole lot of World and European records too. Even after total hip replacement in 2002, her times continue to drop.

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Jane Asher (Matric1947), Jane (Roberts) Hulley (Matric 1959), Anne (Roberts) Jones (Matric 1961), Susan (Roberts) Leuner (Matric 1955), Marissa Rollnick (Matric 1968)
Sandra Murray (teacher at Roedean), and Charlotte Hulley (Honorary Old Girl) recently took part. Susan Roberts was a member of the South African team that won a bronze medal at the 1956 Olympic Games.

Roedean School (SA) was founded in 1903 as a sister school to the esteemed Roedean in Brighton, England. Armed with “the most modern ideals for the education of girls”, Theresa Lawrence and Katherine Margaret Earle set sail for South Africa at the turn of the last century and began their school, complete with 22 pupils, in a small house in Johannesburg.

Click here for a video of Jane in 2015

Rhokana Mine swimming pool Kitwe Nkana Northern Rhodesia

The mine swimming pool at Nkana in its heyday.

JANE ASHER, GBR, 80-84
Jane Asher earned her third spot on the World Masters Swimmers of the Year list, fourth if you count a runner-up spot in 2007. She last made an appearance in 2006 after earning her first berth back in 2004.

Asher had an outlandish resume for the ballot this year, ending the competitive season with 10 short course meter and eight long course meter FINA Masters World records:

SCM: 50 free (37.67), 100 free (1:24.44), 200 free (3:01.61), 400 free (6:34.92), 50 back (46.10), 100 back (1:44.88), 200 back (3:42.88), 50 fly (45.57), 100 IM (1:42.46), 400 IM (8:07.34); LCM: 100 free (1:24.66), 200 free (3:07.40), 400 free (6:57.31), 800 free (13:51.21), 100 back (1:46.11), 200 back (3:50.64) 200 IM (3:54.07), 400 IM (8:21.88)

“Because I turned 80 this year, I planned to swim all events, but later decided to leave out the 200 fly in both long and short course,” Asher said. “I might have a go at the 200 fly next year, but it will have to be at a meet where nothing else matters! It's quite hard to find long course events, when one has to get through 17 events in about five meets.”


JANE ASHER, GBR, 85-89

Jane Asher, who turned 85 last year, returns to Swimming World’s Top 12 World Masters Swimmers of the Year for the fourth time. She was first named to the list in 2004—the year the World Masters award was created—then later in 2006 and 2011.

Asher put together an outstanding swimming resumé this past season (Nov. 1, 2015 through Oct. 31, 2016), setting world records 18 times in 11 long course events and 16 times in 11 short course events.

But her records this past year weren’t the highlight of Asher’s season. Rather, it was the opportunity she had to swim with her good friend, Christine Goodair, and Asher’s two sons, Jamie and Alistair, at the European Masters Swimming Championships in London last May. They finished 13th in the 200 mixed medley relay for the 240-279 age group, and Asher was elated: “What a treat for a mother of my age!”

Asher was born in Northern Rhodesia (now known as Zambia) and raised in South Africa. At the age of 22, she moved to Great Britain, where she became a teacher and a coach, teaching the basics of swimming.

Since 1986 when she first set Masters world records in the women’s 55-59 age group, Asher has continued to set global standards in each age group an incredible 187 times (78 long course and 109 short course through Oct. 31, 2016)…in every stroke and distance except breaststroke.
https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/world-masters-swimmers-spotlight-jane-asher-rick-colella/

asher jane1

Water way to have a good time: Jane Asher is still breaking world records at the age of 84.

She swam competitively in her early 20s, taking up coaching once a mother, but finally pursued racing across the globe after losing her husband, Robert, to colon cancer 25 years ago. It helped to fill the hole in her life and cope with the sadness of becoming a widow aged 65. In a strange way, it enabled her to become the sportswoman she is today.

“When I first started doing lots of international competitions, my family thought it was a bit odd, and I was away a lot. But now they find it so exciting. They will all try to come for the championships in London.”

Her own life story is as fascinating as her career as phenomenally successful sportswoman. Born in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, she had malaria as baby. Her father, an American who served in the cavalry in the First World War, and her mother, an English ballet dancer – it is from here Asher believes she inherited her flexibility in the water – thought best to move to Johannesburg, South Africa.

At her boarding school she remembers girls were taught not to be too competitive. Her first race did not come until she was 17.

“My mother was sat right up the top, and shouted encouragement just before I was about to take my mark. I was so embarrassed and full of nervous energy that I swam faster than I ever had before and won the race. So now whenever I do backstroke I always think of my mother up above, and when I’m doing front crawl I think of my father with his hand on my shoulder. They always said I was the best.”

She studied social sciences in Rhodes, before doing a postgraduate course in Manchester, where she swam for the university. Asher then moved to Norwich, monitoring piece work in a factory, before marrying and becoming a full-time mother. Swimming fell off the radar.

Asher only got back in the water when a local school built a pool and needed an instructor. Aged 40, she was trying to encourage the pupils to enter competitions. The school were reluctant. “These were lots of kids who had failed the 11-plus exam, so the school didn’t want them to fail at something again. So I took them to a competition and entered myself. I was 40 and the girls were teenagers so they beat me, but the kids loved it. They thought it was amazing. But someone came to me and said, ‘you know there are races for grown-ups’, and it all went from there.”

Four decades later and Asher has barely lost a race, despite having both hips replaced not long after the turn of the millennium. About the only loss she can remember came to a good rival and friend in Montreal in 2013. Yet that was only because she could not hear the start because of a rock concert going on near the pool (two small hearing aids are about the only reminder of her age).


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/12131836/Meet-84-year-old-Jane-Asher-Britains-ageless-swimming-super-gran.html

Golden Gran back to roots

14 March, 2017

GREAT Britain’s Golden Gran Jane Asher will be the headlining name taking part in this year’s South African National Masters swimming competition getting underway at the Joan Harrison Swimming Complex tomorrow.

However, it is a sort of homecoming for Asher who was born in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), grew up in Johannesburg, and then attended Rhodes University.

She subsequently moved to England to further her studies, where she then married and settled down.

Asher did swim in the Midmar Mile several years ago, but this will be her first appearance in the South African Masters Nationals.

“I decided to come and take part because it’s in East London this year and my school friend lives there,” explained Asher.

At 86-years-old Asher is a world-class Masters swimmer and has competed in events across the globe, setting 75 FINA Masters World Records along the way in freestyle, individual medley, backstroke and buttery sprint events across various age cate gories.

Records will however not be a priority for Asher during this week's Masters as she will just be looking to enjoy the event.

“I just hope to swim well, I aged up last year and swam over 30 races going for records,” said Asher.

“It was very successful and I was pleased to get everyone I was going for.”

“So this year I will be swimming for the pleasure of meeting old friends and making new ones.”

Asher will be the oldest female taking part in the SA Masters, while local Amakhosi swimmer Terry Briceland will be the oldest male, also at 86 years old.

Several South African Masters swimmers will also be aiming for top honours.

Edith Ottermann (51) and Tim Shead (65), both from Cape Town Masters, Heather Campbell (62) from East Coast Durban, and Terry Downs from Coelacanth’s Pre toria have all represented South Africa and taken part in a number of world championships and will be among the favourites in their divisions.

On the local front Amakhosi swimmers Butch Coetzee (61), Carla Mackenzie (62), Joe Hiltsrom (73) and Ronald Wallace (76) have also taken part in world championships and they will be eager to take top honours on their home turf.

The Masters gets under way at 8am tomorrow morning at the Joan Harrison, with the opening ceremony scheduled to take place from 3pm.

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Graham Johnston

Graham Johnston

Springbok, Olympian, Commonwealth Games gold medalist - and Masters swimming legend.

Graham Johnston (10 July 1930 - 27 July 2019) was as swimmer from Bloemfontein. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1998, the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame in 2003, the Texas Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame in 2009, the National Senior Games Hall of Fame in 2011, and the Huntsman World Senior Games Hall of Fame in 2012.

Graham and his brother Donald Johnston attended Grey College and were coached by their father. Donald won three titles at the 1946 South African championships, and only in 1949 at Pietermaritzburg did Graham beat him at the South African Championships. They both set new SA records in the 220-yard freestyle heats - only for both to be beaten in the final by Les Klenerman. Graham won the 550 and 880 yards events.

He was awarded Springbok colours when he competed in the 1950 Empire Games held in Auckland,  where he won the 1500 m freestyle. He repeated this feat at the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver. He also competed at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, swimming the 400 and 1500 freestyle, and 4x200 freestyle relay, where South Africa finished 7th.

In 1952 Graham was one of the first South African swimmers to win a scholarship to swim for an American University. He attended the University of Oklahoma, where he was a three-time All-American, graduating with a business degree in 1956. 

Graham Johnston had the following podium finishes at major championships: 1st in the 1950 British Empire Games 1650 yards Freestyle, 1st in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 1650 yards Freestyle, 2nd in the 1950 British Empire Games 440 yards Freestyle, 3rd in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 440 yards Freestyle, 3rd in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 4×220 yards Freestyle Relay (with Dennis Ford, Peter Duncan, and Billy Steuart).

The International Swimming Hall of Fame article on Graham states: Many say that Johnny Weissmuller was the greatest swimmer who ever lived. He set records that stood for dozens of years. Today we have a man who has been setting records for dozens of years. He holds Masters Age Group records from 100 meters to 1500 meters as well as many open water world records. When he sets records, he doesn't do it by a tenth of a second or even by as much as a second or two; he does it by minutes.

Graham Johnston died in Houston on 27th July 2019.

Wikipedia: Graham M. Johnston (born 10 July 1930 in Bloemfontein) was a South African swimmer who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Johnston graduated from the University of Oklahoma and has lived in the United States of America since 1958. He met his wife-to-be, Janis in 1952. The two married in 1955 and have five children. His father, a municipal pool manager, taught him to swim before the age of one. He also tried other athletic endeavors, lettering in five sports during his high school years. But the water was his true love and he achieved national success during high school with the following championships:

South African National Junior Diving Champion 1946, 1947, 1948, South African National Junior Swimming Champion 1946, 1947, 1948, South African National Senior Swimming Champion 1948, 1949, 1950. Johnston won two gold and two silver medals in each of the 1950 and 1954 Commonwealth Games held in New Zealand and Canada, as Queen Elizabeth watched in Vancouver, Graham won a second Games gold medal in the 1650 freestyle, breaking the Empire Games record by 45 seconds. He also won a bronze medal in the 440-yard freestyle.

In 1952 he was selected to represent South Africa in the Olympic Games held in Helsinki. Johnston was one of the first foreign-born athletes to enjoy a full scholarship at an American college. He received a full scholarship for swimming at the University of Oklahoma where he achieved NCAA All-American status three consecutive years. Johnston retired from competitive swimming between 1956 and 1972.

In 1973, at the age of 41 he returned to the sport and swam in his first Masters nationals in Santa Monica, California. In addition to Johnston's world records in short and long course, he holds six national short course records and seven national long course records. He also holds all national freestyle records in the distances ranging from 100 yards through 10K in the 65 to 70 age group. He has won the Waikiki Rough Water Swim eight years in a row (1993-2000). And he is the only person to hold all seven USMS national long distance records in any age group. In 1998 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. At age 69 his 1650 yd. national record was just five seconds slower than the time that won him the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1950. Johnston won gold in the 200-meter free, 400-meter free, 800-meter free, the 400-meter IM and the 5k open water swim (in 67 degree water) at the World Masters Swimming Championship in Munich, Germany.

Graham Johnston 2012 2

Graham Johnston's Competitive Edge Keeps Him Swimming

July 11, 2012

HOUSTON, Texas, July 11. GRAHAM Johnston didn't reach his goal of breaking the Masters world record in the 1500 freestyle last week at the United States Masters Swimming long course nationals, but he's lucky he got the chance to race at all.

After a 400 IM race five months ago, he felt shortness of breath and pain in his chest -- more intense than the usual sensations after completing one of the most grueling swimming events. Doctors discovered a blocked aorta in his heart and promptly inserted a stent to keep blood pumping regularly.

Johnston, 81, was able to get back in the pool and train for nationals shortly thereafter. In addition to the 1500, Johnston won five more individual events last weekend and helped the Masters of South Texas win one relay and place second in two others. It was one of the few championship meets in which Johnston did not break a national or world record, finishing a minute slower than Divano Giulio's world record of 24:40.69 in the mile.

"I'm happy that I can still get into the pool and train at the top level," he said, "and I enjoy swimming so much that I don't want to give it up."

Johnston's swimming history begins in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where as a teenager he made good on his dream to continue his swimming career in the United States. After selling his belongings and accepting some money from his mother, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean and became the first South African swimmer to compete for an American university, earning All-America honors for the University of Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955.

Johnston's time at Oklahoma helped get him a spot on the South African Olympic team for the 1952 Games in Helsinki, where he competed in the 400 and 1500 freestyles, as well as the 800 free relay. After competing at the highest level of the sport, Johnston quit swimming at 22 years old. Masters swimming wouldn't be conceived for another 17 years, so Johnston and his wife Janis went to South Africa, where Graham sold mining equipment. After two years, the Johnstons returned to the United States. Johnston made a lucrative career selling heavy equipment to miners and farmers all over the country before settling in Houston.

Johnston was invited to a Masters swimming competition shortly after the organization was founded in 1972, but he refused. The bug bit him in 1973, and Johnston made his Masters swimming debut at the 1973 nationals in Santa Monica, where he was summarily defeated by Bumpy Jones, who would become a friend and rival.

"I have a great ego and I'm competitive in just about anything I do," Johnston said. "I was confident I could win (at Santa Monica), but in the first two races I was whipped down to third place."

From that moment on, Johnston was on his way to becoming a Masters legend. Throughout his career as a Masters swimmer, he has broken nearly 90 Masters world records across seven age groups. Eight of those records still stand in the 70-74 and 80-84 age groups. He was inducted into the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame in 1998.

He's made a name for himself in open water venues as well, becoming one of the oldest swimmers to traverse the Strait of Gibraltar at age 74 and the first man over 70 years old to complete the 3.5-mile Waikiki Roughwater Swim in less than an hour.

And, in 1995, he swam in the chilly waters from Robben Island -- the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned -- to the shores of Cape Town in South Africa in a little more than two hours, becoming one of the fastest to do so.

Life has slowed Johnston a little bit recently in his pursuit of excellence in the pool. In addition to the stint placed in his heart earlier this year, Johnston learned that his wife was going through the early stages of Alzheimer's, and caring for her means fewer trips around the country for meets.

But the goals are still there, including a possible run at that 1500 world record at a meet in San Antonio next month. And Johnston, who says he wants to swim "until I'm 105," says he'll never turn his back on the sport that gave him so much.

"If I remained in South Africa (instead of attending college in the United States), I would have been in some mediocre position and would not have been happy," he said. "Swimming opened doors to me that would not have been open in South Africa, and I'm so happy about that."

Graham Johnston 2012

Reunited after 58 years

29 August, 2008

Jim Portelance and Graham Johnston reunited at the Victoria Crystal Pool  in 2008 after 58 years.  They met in 1950 at the British Empire Games in New Zealand where they competed against each other in the 1650 yard freestyle. 

Portelance represented Canada and Johnston represented South Africa.  Both lads barely made the finals, earning the last two qualifying spots but the race had a fairy tale ending with Johnston winning gold and Portelance silver.   Portelance, 76,  is a semi-retired doctor living in the West Shore of Victoria and swims three times a week with the Victoria Crystal Silver Streaks, a masters swim club with an average age of 70.  

Johnston, 77, a retired heavy equipment sales representative, now lives and swims in Houston, Texas and is a member of MOST (Masters of South Texas) and last month competed in the US Masters Long Course Nationals in Portland, Oregon. Johnston, accompanied by his wife and athletic supporter, Janis, is visiting and swimming with friends, Dan and Jackie Eddy of Sooke, who he met at the World Huntsman Senior Games in Utah. 

Portelance and Johnston swam a 2400m hour long practice session with the Silver Steaks, teasing each other with their speed and skill. They will next meet this coming October at the Huntsman World Seniors Games in St. George, Utah, competing in the 75 to 79 age group. http://www.msabc.ca/css/jim.htm

Still in the Swim of Things

At one time, OU had a very competitive swimming program, thanks in large part to a Graham Johnston-led gang of transplanted South Africans. By Jay C. Upchurch

In the early 1950s, an era when American colleges and universities were populated overwhelmingly by homegrown students, Norman, Oklahoma, seemed an unlikely place for exotic transplants.  But that perception quickly changed when South African swimmer Graham Johnston arrived in August 1952, followed over the next six months by six of his countrymen.  Soon everyone associated with collegiate swimming became familiar with the University of Oklahoma’s dynamic South African connection.

Almost overnight, OU was in the vanguard of Southwest schools integrating foreign student-athletes into their programs.  The willingness of University President George Lynn Cross and Athletics Director Bud Wilkinson to internationalize the OU campus was revolutionary thinking at the time.

A half-century later -- 20 years after the University discontinued its intercollegiate swimming program -- Johnston still has in his possession the letter from OU’s swim coach, Joe Glander, promising an athletic scholarship that included room and board, books, tuition and $15 a month.  That letter resulted from several conversations between Glander and a young South African chap named Neville Price, a champion broad jumper who had joined Coach John Jacobs’ Sooner track and field squad after meeting Jacobs’ son at a 1951 competition.

Price and Johnston had become fast friends at the 1950 (British Empire) Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, and the two continued to correspond after Price wound up in the United States via a track scholarship to OU.

“Bud Wilkinson and Joe Glander were like surrogate fathers to me, even though Joe left OU the year after I arrived,” says Johnston.  “I didn’t see or talk to my parents for almost five years, so I looked up to those men quite a bit.  I can’t say enough about the way Bud Wilkinson treated me.”

While Johnston was largely responsible for the influx of South African swimmers, he credits Price with providing the initial bridge to OU.

“Neville was really the one who helped open the door for myself and a lot of other South African athletes, including the great group of guys who ended up at Oklahoma,” says Johnston, mentally dusting off a few memories that have been stored away for over 50 years.  “If he hadn’t gotten to know Jake Jacobs’ son, none of us would probably have ever set foot in Oklahoma.”

Actually, Johnston did not have to dig too deep to recall the period he describes as “the turning point in my life.”  In May 2005, he returned to Norman with Janis, his wife of 49 years, for her 50-year graduation celebration.  On that visit, the 74-year-old native of Bloemfontein, South Africa, reconnected with fellow countrymen and former OU teammates Lin Meiring, Peter Duncan, and Mel van Helsdingen.

“We told stories and laughed straight through for two solid hours,” says Johnston.  “It was so wonderful to see my old friends and reminisce about the good old days.”

“Good” does not properly define the success OU’s swim team enjoyed during the decade of the ’50s.  The Sooners won the Big Seven Conference swimming title five of six years from 1952 to 1957, thanks in part to the talented South African contingent.

“We never lost a conference meet during my time at OU.  We won the Big Seven title every year I was there, and that says a lot about the quality of talent we had at the time,” recalls Johnston, who specialized in the free style 220-, 440- and 1,650-yard events.

Johnston earned All-America honors three times during his collegiate career and established several school records, as well as a handful of national swimming marks prior to his departure.  From 1952-56, the quick-finned, blond Sooner was among the world’s most dominant amateur swimmers.

The lone blemish on his résumé occurred during the 1954 Big Seven Championships, as the Sooners were seemingly en route to another conference swimming crown.  News that Johnston had mistakenly enrolled in only 11 hours of class credits for that particular semester came to light, thus making him a part-time student and ineligible to compete in varsity sports events.

As a result, the Sooners were stripped of the title, and two national records Johnston set during the meet were disallowed.

“That’s certainly not something I’m proud of.  Neglect on my part -- not knowing you needed to carry 12 hours to compete -- cost the team something special,” says Johnston.  “That would be the only thing I would change about my time at OU.”

It was a rare miscalculation on Johnston’s part, according to Meiring, who says his longtime friend’s hard work and attention to detail were always second to none.

“Graham has always been a fierce competitor.  Early on, he dedicated himself to be as good as he could be, and the truth is, he’s an amazing swimmer,” offers Meiring, 71, a retired ear, nose and throat surgeon in Oklahoma City.

Another former teammate, Bob Leonardt, offers a similar opinion.

“It was interesting to see how Graham kind of opened the door for the rest of the South African swimmers, but the thing I remember most about him was his dedication as an athlete.  His convictions ran very deep,” Leonardt notes.

So focused was Johnston that he twice transformed himself into an Olympian, competing for South Africa at the 1952 Helsinki Games.  Four years later, he again qualified for the South African team but chose not to compete in Melbourne because the dates—November 22 through December 8, 1956—conflicted with his final semester at OU.  Instead, Johnston completed his schoolwork and graduated with a business degree.

He married college sweetheart Janis Thompson that same December.

“Everything was going great in my life.  I was graduating, I was married to a great gal, and we had our entire lives ahead of us,” says Johnston.

The Johnstons moved to South Africa in 1957 when Graham accepted employment in the mining business.  It did not take long, however, for him to become disenchanted with his new job, and he began to look for opportunities back in the United States.

“It wasn’t a great situation.  South Africa was going through a considerable amount of turmoil.  We really didn’t want to start a family and not know what was going to happen next, so we moved to Chicago in 1958,” explains Johnston, who used every penny the family had to get back to America.

“We were in Chicago for a while when I got a job offer with a construction company in Oklahoma City.  I took the job, but before we could move, a better offer came in from a similar company in Houston.  We went to Houston, and it turned out to be a great decision.”

Johnston’s passion for the pool continued over the next 15 years, but he basically was retired from competitive swimming during that period.  In 1973 at the age of 41, he rediscovered the sport and dived back in headfirst.  Since then, Johnston has traveled the world competing in both open-water swim events and regular meets.  He has set dozens of world records in various age divisions and is showing no signs of slowing down.

In July, Johnston surged to five gold medals and three silvers at the 2005 World Masters in Canada.  One of his greatest aspirations is to become the oldest person to swim the English Channel, a feat he will attempt next year when he turns 75.

“We are all in absolute awe of Graham’s drive to swim after all of these years.  In all honesty, he has become world renowned for his performances,” says Meiring, also a member of South Africa’s ’52 and ’56 Olympic teams.  “Graham is a really nice, uncomplicated man with a constitution of iron.  That has carried him through and helped make him an amazing swimmer.”

At last count, 15 of Johnston’s world records still stand.  When asked the secret to his success, he quickly points to his healthy lifestyle and the unending support he has received from his wife.

“It’s been an absolutely fantastic journey, from my time at OU through the last 50 or so years.  I have an incredible wife and five wonderful children, and I’ve had the chance to pursue something I truly enjoy in life,” says Johnston, whose accomplishments were validated in 1998 when he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

He continues to work out in the pool for several hours almost every day and has set a rigorous schedule for himself over the next year.

“Probably no one alive has swum farther than I have.  That’s pretty amazing to think about,” laughs Johnston, who is retired from the construction business, but still coaches swimming in his spare time.

“But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still a lot of oceans to swim and records to break.”

Jay C. Upchurch is a regular contributor to Sooner Magazine.  He also is editor-in-chief of a new independent publication devoted to OU sports, Sooner Spectator, and sports columnist for the Oklahoma Gazette.

Age Hasn't Stopped This Man From Swimming — And Winning

July 26, 2013

More than 10,000 athletes are meeting in Cleveland for The National Senior Games. Adults older than 55 — and some older than 90 — are running track, riding bikes, playing basketball and competing in many of the sports you might see at the Summer Olympics. In fact there are a few who were Olympians themselves back in the day who say they find that competition is just as satisfying in their later years.

One of those is 82-year-old swimmer Graham Johnston. When he's not racing or getting ready to race, he's in the stands, checking out the other swimmers with an expert eye.

"See," he says, pointing at one competitor, "he took a breath on the turn. Shouldn't have done that." But when it's over, he applauds and shouts "Great race" to all the swimmers.

And Johnston knows a great race when he sees one. He's been swimming since the age of 2. "My father was a manager of a swimming pool," he explains. And there wasn't a lot else to do in the small South African town where he grew up.

Over the decades, Johnston has set world records in various age groups for older swimmers. He's in several national and international swimming halls of fame. Back in 1952 he represented South Africa in the Olympics. But as an Olympian, he describes himself as an "also-ran."

"Unfortunately, when I had to train for the Olympics, I didn't have much money and I couldn't eat very well," Johnston says. "And I probably only had one half-decent meal a day. And I think I had some malnourishment. I never got in the final. I missed the final by one position."

Johnston came to the United States on a swimming scholarship from the University of Oklahoma. That's where he met his wife, Janice. It was during their freshman year. Janice says, "He just didn't swim fast enough to get away."

She goes to every one of her husband's races. "I love being his cheerleader," she says. Or as her husband puts it: "She's my athletic supporter."

Not only is Janice Johnston at all of her husband's races; she's at every practice too. That's five or six trips to the pool each week, every week. Johnston used to train twice a day but hasn't for the past four years. "I find I'm too tired," he says.

That regimen began 40 years ago when he discovered Masters Swimming, which organizes competitions for adults. As with the Senior Games in Cleveland, competitors are grouped by age in five-year increments.

And more recently, Johnston has taken up open water swimming, making the trip across the Straits of Gibraltar and swimming from the Hawaiian island of Lanai to Maui. There was "a 20-foot tiger shark in Maui one year," says Johnston with bravado, "but it wasn't hungry."

Still, he knows that no amount of attitude, competition or rigorous training can defeat the toll of age.

"As your body ages, all your physical equipment deteriorates," he says. "I feel a lot older and I'm getting a lot slower, but so is everybody else."

He jokes that lot of his competition is already dead. "But I'm still here," he says with a chuckle.

Johnston still has living competition, and he joined them in the pool for the 200-meter freestyle. He holds the Senior Games record in this event for his age group. He didn't beat the record, but he beat the guy who came in after him by 41 seconds.

So Johnston got another gold medal. But he says medals have never motivated him. In fact, he's given pounds of them away to kids he's coached. He's in it for the camaraderie at the pool, he says, and the thrill of the race.

"That's what makes life exciting," he says. "You've got to get that adrenaline high."

And that's something that doesn't change for athletes, no matter what their age.

 Graham with Helen Pirrow

Graham Johnston with Springbok swimmer Helena Pirowin Houston.

86-year-old swimmers continue friendly rivalry at Huntsman World Senior Games

October 12, 2017 ST. GEORGE — Thursday morning, the second of three days of swimming competition at the Huntsman World Senior Games, two longtime friends once again battled each other in the water. Graham Johnston and Donald Baker, both 86 years old, have been friendly rivals for nearly 20 years.

Johnston edged Baker in the 100-yard individual medley Thursday morning at the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center, but both men said the camaraderie they share with each other and other swimmers is far more important than times or medals.

“It encourages older people to stay physically active until the day they die,” Johnston said of the Huntsman World Senior Games.

This is his 16th year of participation at the games. “You meet some really good people in swimming, people who are dedicated to good health,” agreed Baker, who has been a Huntsman World Senior Games participant for the past 23 years, all while battling multiple forms of cancer.

“Praise God, I’m still able to get in the water and swim a little bit,” Baker added. Baker’s wife Gini, 67, competed in the 200-yard freestyle race and a couple other events Thursday.

“I first came here when I was 50, and there was no records in this pool, so I got to set every record,” Gini Baker said. The Bakers reside in both Phoenix and San Diego.

Two years ago, Don Baker and Johnston successfully swam the 20-mile Catalina Channel in the open ocean off the coast of Southern California, taking about 12 hours and setting age-category records in the process.

Johnston is no stranger to the record books, having set more than 100 age-group world records spanning various distances. A South African native, Johnston swam for his home country on its 1952 Olympic team. Johnston and his wife Janice now live in Houston. Janice is her husband’s stalwart cheerleader on the sidelines, hollering “Go, Graham!” during every race.

The Bakers are each swimming nine events this year, while Johnston is competing in seven.

“The venue is such a good venue, and they do such a good job of organizing it,” Don Baker said. “It’s a real pleasure to come here.”

The Bakers and Johnston are but a few of the dozens of swimmers competing at this year’s Huntsman World Senior Games. The swim competition wraps up Friday with five more events at the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center in St. George, starting at 8 a.m.

 
Graham Johnston 2018
 

Swimmer Graham Johnston gets ready for events at a Palo Alto College swimming event on July 25, 1998.


 1955 dec 21 graham johnston marries 2 2

Legendary Houston swimmer Graham Johnston dead at 88

Graham Johnston, a legendary swimmer who competed in the Olympics in 1952 and continued swimming competitively into his 80s, died Saturday morning of natural causes in Houston, his longtime home.

He was 88.

Friends and family said Johnston’s love of swimming was contagious.

“Our world revolved around swimming,” said Johnston’s daughter, Jenny Lord, who has fond childhood memories of her parents piling their children into a red Volkswagen convertible to go swimming at their local pool in Sharpstown, where she grew up.

During drives through the scenic Texas Hill Country, her father would often pull over whenever he spotted a swimming hole.

“He really helped other people to love the sport, because he had such a passion for it,” Lord said.

Johnston grew up in South Africa, where his father managed a swimming pool and encouraged his sons to swim as much as possible. Johnston was hooked.

In college, Johnston swam competitively at the University of Oklahoma, where he met his future wife, Janice. He competed in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki but didn’t win any medals. After Johnston married Janice in 1955, he stopped swimming competitively until the 1970s, when the U.S. Masters Swimming Program was launched for older swimmers.

Johnston rediscovered the joy of swimming. And over the next four decades, he shared that joy with everyone he met in the tightly knit world of swimming, from longtime veterans he loved to compete against to newcomers who barely knew the breast stroke.

“He was just an absolutely brilliant swimmer,” said Helena Finley, a longtime family friend whose father used to race against Johnston. “He not only enjoyed it himself, but he brought the love of the sport to so many people.”

Even in his 60s, Johnston was swimming almost as fast as he did in his 20s, according to a 1998 Houston Chronicle profile.

“Swimming has been my life for so long,” Johnston said at the time. “I can’t picture ever doing anything else. I love the sport. As long as I am alive, I probably will be swimming.”

Over the years, Johnston trained for races by swimming two hours a day on a nearly daily basis at the Dad’s Club in Houston. By the age of 79, he had broken 81 records in Masters Swimming and was inducted in the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame, according to the Chronicle’s archives.

He could swim fast in short races or swim for miles in open water — forgoing a wet suit no matter how cold the conditions. He almost swam across the English Channel, Lord said, but the rough waves made him sick.

There was more to Johnston than swimming, Lord said. Johnston was also a great father who doted on his five children.

“He just had unconditional love,” Lord said.


Houston Chronicle - John Tedesco

 

Olympian Donald Johnston

Graham Johnston Donald right and Les Klenerman

Donald Johnston (right) with SA champion Les Klenerman.


Don Johnston’s Story

Swimming in Nationals at Hillcrest this year was a particularly emotional experience for Don. It was in 1945, 73 years ago, that at the age of 16 he had burst onto the SA swimming scene in this very same pool.

And here he was aged 89, he hadn’t swum for a couple of years, he had been diagnosed with cancer and he’d been receiving monthly chemo since last August. He’d lost 30 kgs and was feeling vrot and things didn’t look good.

But talking swimming again to old friend Anne Jones who had been visiting him in hospital, somehow sparked something inside him and with Anne’s steady encouragement and help he decided to swim again and against all odds had entered and was actually competing at nationals.

Don had joined masters in 1996 in Nelspruit– egged on by his American based brother Graham, a highly rated master swimmer home for a visit. He has been a regular participant at Nationals since then and in fact received his 20 Year Award this year.

Don swam in three events, 50 m back and free and 100m free. There were three competitors in his age group and he won a gold, a silver and a bronze. In addition he won the award for the Oldest Competitor. An unexpected and very pleasing haul. And a marvellous demonstration of the determination and grit of a true champion.

But what about the back story? So what happened in 1945, I asked Don. “I was living in Bloem with my folks and brother Graham. My dad was superintendent of the public baths and we had free swims – everyone else had to pay a penny for the early session and a tickey for the late one. So we swam a lot.

“When I was chosen to swim for the Free State in the SA championships I hadn’t had much experience. The furthest we ever swam was 200 yards. So in my first race, which was the 220 yards I decided to just stick with Terry Collard the current champ for as long as possible – but when it came to the 4th length I was still with him so I just gave it hell and I beat him.

“Now when it came to the 440 Peter Elliot gave me a bit of advice. He said that he’d heard ‘they’ were going to trick me by sending one of them out very fast to tire me out so that Terry could then catch me up and win.

So I was wise to that and I beat him – and then the 880 was easy for me. But the 110 was his. I was never a sprinter.” So the 220, 440 and 880 titles were all won by the boy from Bloem.

“When I got back home I told my parents I wouldn’t go to school that day – but they wouldn’t hear of it. Very reluctantly I dragged myself off only to find that there was a surprise assembly of the whole school and my parents stood proudly on the stage next to my three huge silver cups – and I got my full colours there and then. Something that had never happened before.”

That was 1945 and in 1948 Don was chosen to swim at the Olympic Games in London one of three South Africans so honoured. Quite a story

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Charlene Wittstock

Charlene Wittstock

Charlene Wittstock swam for South Africa at the 2000 Olympics, 2002 Short Course World Championships, where she placed sixth in the 200 m backstroke, and at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games. A shoulder injury shortened her career and although she tried to return for the 2008 Olympics, she did not qualify.

At a swimming competition in Monaco in 2000 Wittstock met Prince Albert II, and they later began a romantic relationship. In June 2010 Wittstock and Prince Albert II became engaged, and were married in Monaco in 2011. At that time Wittstock became Her Serene Highness, The Princess of Monaco.

Charlene Wittstock was born on 25th January 1978 in the Rhodesian city of Bulawayo. She is the daughter of Michael Wittstock, a sales manager, and his wife Lynette, a retired swimming instructor and former competitive diver.

At age 12 her family emigrated to South Africa, where she grew up in the Eastern Transvaal town of Benoni, where she attended Tom Newby Primary from 1988 to 1991.

In 1997 Charlene won the 100 and 200 backstroke events at the South African Championships in Germiston, silver in the 50 and 100 freestyle - and the award as Best Female Swimmer of the Tournament. She swam for South Africa at the 2000 Olympics, and at the 2002 FINA Short Course World Championships, where she placed sixth in the 200 m backstroke, and at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games. A shoulder injury shortened her career and although she tried to return for the 2008 Olympics, she did not qualify.

She moved to Durban to pursue her swimming career full-time under coach Graham Hill at the Seagulls Swimming Club. In 2000 she won the gold medal for the 200m backstroke event at the "Marenostrum" international swimming meeting in Monaco. This is when she met Prince Albert for the first time; he was presiding over the international competition.

She later left Seagulls and joined the Tuks Swimming Club at the University of Pretoria. She did not enroll in any academic courses and consequently never graduated from the University. The swimming club sponsored her by providing free access to pools, coaching, accommodations and gymnasium access.

Charlene left Pretoria in January 2005 and returned to Durban and joined a former Tuks Swimming coach, Brannislav Ivkovic. In 2007 Charlene Wittstock regained her title as South Africa’s 50m women’s backstroke champion in 30:16 seconds at the SA National Aquatic Championship.

Charlene  was part of the South African Women’s 4x100m medley swimming team which came 5th in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She also swims 200m breaststroke as well as 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke.


Start

During her professional career, Charlene set South African records for:

50m backstroke in 29:18 and 28:00 respectively in the long and short courses in 2002

100m backstroke in 1:00:16 minutes, short course at the 2001-2002 World Cup

200m backstroke in 2:08:72, short course in 2002

In 2000 Wittstock met Prince Albert II, and they later began a romantic relationship.

In June 2010 Wittstock and Prince Albert II became engaged, and were married in Monaco on 1-2 July 2011 (civil and religious ceremony). At that time Wittstock became Her Serene Highness, The Princess of Monaco.

Today Charlene has a continued interest in swimming - even competing in the Midmar Mile. On her marriage, Charlene became Princess consort of Monaco and gained the title and style of Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco; the last to hold the title was the Prince's mother, Grace Kelly. Charlene was married to the Prince in a civil ceremony on 1st July 2011 in the Throne Room at the Palace of Monaco. The religious ceremony took place on 2nd July 2011 in the Cour d'Honneur of the Palace of Monaco. She bears the title "HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco"along with all the historical titles vested to the Prince, in the feminine.

On February 12, 2011, the soon-to-be Princess of Monaco, Charlene Wittstock, swam the 38th aQuelle Midmar Mile (below).

Charlene Wittstock Midmar 2011

Charlene Primary school

Charlene on the right - at Tom Newby Primary school in Benoni

From poppie to princess

26 June 2011 https://www.timeslive.co.za/sport/2011-06-26-from-poppie-to-princess/ 

The Cinderella from Benoni had the natural drive and the discipline to win her prince - and ensure the slipper fits.

Charlene Wittstock has seldom put a foot wrong in her 10-year fairy tale from barefoot Olympic swimmer to enchanted princess in high-heeled slippers. Except when it came to wearing high heels. That took practice for the golden girl from Benoni.

But, like Cinderella minus any wicked relatives, the slipper now fits and she's found her prince charming. At 33, she is poised to follow in the footsteps of the late Hollywood star, Grace Kelly, when she marries Kelly's son, Prince Albert II of Monaco, at the Prince's Palace of Monaco next weekend.

Mining magnate Bridgette Radebe, who is close to her, says: "Charlene can bring her uniqueness and energy to follow on the legend of Princess Grace."

Wittstock's elegance, like another glamorous blonde from Benoni, Hollywood star Charlize Theron, already glitters from red carpets and the covers of glossy magazines such as Vogue.

Despite her metamorphosis, Wittstock - born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and raised in Benoni and Durban - remains passionate about her family, friends, Africa and her charities. Radebe says: "Charlene has never stopped being who she is. With Charlene, what you see is what you get." And what you get includes friendliness, fun, compassion and commitment.

During Radebe's visit last month, Wittstock's day was packed with official duties, so the friends only caught up in the early hours of the morning.

"By the time we finished, it was something to four and we had not eaten. We asked the chef to prepare a spicy, vegetarian pasta. Charlene is vegetarian and we asked for lots of garlic and chilli. She said: 'I'm a Durban girl.' We started chatting about South Africa, her passion - which is mentoring and the development of children in swimming - fashion and social responsibility.

"She always wants to know: 'Am I doing enough?' She wants to go the extra mile in her new role."

Wittstock will soon represent Monaco on the global stage. Yet she will still be an ambassador for South Africa. She sent Radebe, who is married to Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, an sms last week saying: "Oh, South African flags all over the country before the wedding. It's awesome."

Wittstock's patriotism is part of her family heritage. Her father, Mike, is a loyal, no-nonsense South African.

When Prince Albert II called her father last year to ask for her hand in marriage, she advised him to phone before South Africa played France in the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

"The next day I asked: 'When did you call?' and he said it was five minutes before kickoff. I asked what my father had said, and he replied: 'He said he had to get off the phone because the national anthem was coming on.' I said that I hope he got the message," Wittstock said in a recent TV interview.

A tall and imposing figure, her father says Wittstock grew up a fearless tomboy who often got into scrapes.

"Once she jumped off a tree onto a horse and broke her arm in three places. She was not scared of anything," her father says.

In her competition days, Wittstock joked that she got into swimming because the pool was the safest place for her. Ultimately, swimming dominated her youth. Her first crush was on a local freestyle champion, Peter Williams, whose picture she used to kiss good morning, she said in an interview in 1992.

Wittstock was a South African backstroke champion and represented the country at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 - and through a swimming meeting in Monaco that year, she met Prince Albert II.

Her former teammate, Penny Heyns, remembers Wittstock as a friendly, entertaining person "who knew somebody, without exception, wherever we were in the world".

"She has a lot more depth of character and is more perceptive than you see on the surface," says Heyns. "I can't think of any time I saw her grouchy, and she was an unselfish, considerate roommate."

An injury forced Wittstock out of competitive swimming in 2007, but she still trains with her coach, who has accompanied her to Monte Carlo.

He's not the only member of her close circle of family, friends and pets to move to the principality. Her mother Lynette, a gentle and supportive woman, and her brother, Gareth live in Monte Carlo. Her other brother, Sean and her father, escorting her remaining dogs, flew over for the wedding.

"She has her own puppy and between her and her mom they have about six dogs," says Radebe, describing her as very pro-animal. Wittstock is traumatised by the slaughter of rhino and she and Prince Albert II are promoting environmental awareness from Monaco.

Radebe says Wittstock is in her element at the family lodge in the mountains, near Marseilles, where she has time and space to herself to hike and unwind with her friends and family.

Wittstock's African heritage has permeated the royal palace and wedding programme.

She invited South African Idols winner Jason Hartman to perform at their wedding celebration, as well as local boy band the Romanz.

"I thought I would give input on the music," she said in the TV interview. "My wedding is just a little bit bigger than most but, ja, my nerves are alright for now."

When Radebe joined Wittstock's family for a dinner at the palace in honour of her conversion to Catholicism, she noticed that French music was no longer the sole genre. "We were sitting in these beautiful Japanese gardens after her christening ceremony, having dinner, and in the background was South African music: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Johnny Clegg, Miriam Makeba, and then comes the South African national anthem."

Wittstock's appreciation of contemporary African art shows in her beautiful apartment, says Radebe. "Lynette is an artist and Charlene is very creative, like her."

Wittstock enjoys local favourites such as Mrs Ball's chutney and rooibos tea, and asks for Zambuk, her father says.

Radebe says: "She is the most inexpensive person to please."

Terrence Bray from Durban is one of Wittstock's favourite designers, but for her wedding she'll be wearing a dress by Giorgio Armani. Radebe says Wittstock has an innate sense of style and understood what suited her sculpted body even before she met Armani. "She is not cluttered and knows how to carry herself."

Wittstock has such grace when she accompanies Prince Albert II on formal occasions that she looks as if she were born into royalty. But at her first major appearance with him, despite being briefed on the protocol, she found the attention overwhelming. Radebe says: "She phoned me the next day and said there were hundreds of people clapping when they walked in - and sounded quite upset."

Wittstock, like any celebrity on a world stage, has also had moments when her high-flying lifestyle trips her up. She once shared the royal box with the celebrated tenor Placido Domingo at the Grand Prix and did not realise who he was.

"She asked him: 'What do you do?' and when he told her he was a singer, she said she would love to meet the Three Tenors, unaware that he was one of them," says Radebe. "She does not mind not knowing everything and learning along the way."

Hartman describes Wittstock as a "very genuine person who is pretty down to earth and kind and caring".

The Monegasque people love her spirit of ubuntu and her fresh, natural energy. "Africa is a symbol of nature and sunshine and Charlene oozes naturalness and attracts a lot of people," says Radebe.

Her vitality could be channelled into her children, potential heirs to the throne. "You are on a journey with this person (after marriage) and you would like to have little people along the way, and potential Sharky supporters," Wittstock said in the TV interview.

"I would say I'm looking forward to it," she said, joking that she hoped her husband would support the Sharks, since he had become a staunch rugby fan.

"He is a sports fanatic himself. He has done triathlons, been to five Olympic games for bobsleigh and swims and runs."

Radebe feels the couple are lucky to have found each other. "They are so gelled together and so similar, with their interests intertwined."

The prince introduced Wittstock to Radebe and the two women connected from the moment they met.

"She is very open," says Radebe. If she arrives for a visit, Wittstock will exclaim "Bridg" and fling open her arms for an embrace.

Prince Albert's family have been very welcoming to Wittstock, making her feel part of the family, Radebe says.

She realises she will share her husband with the country and is ready for the role of first lady, adds Radebe, who thinks the royal union will benefit South Africa by enhancing the social, economic and political union of both countries.

Wittstock said in the TV interview: "I will have many duties here to fulfil and will have to dedicate my time to the Monegasque people. But I will not be forgetting South Africa."

Charities are a priority for her and Wittstock is excited at being chosen as the Global Ambassador for the Special Olympics. "I would put everything aside (for charity) and focus on that when I have time," she said.

After the wedding, Wittstock and Prince Albert II will take their first international trip together, to Durban. Perhaps she'll even get to go surfing, which is one of her favourite sports.

"Initially we'll go to the International Olympic Committee meeting and then relax with family and friends," she says.

"I will always come back to South Africa, at least once a year."

Your Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco, take a bow.

Family Affairs

The prince and princesses of Monaco - the children of the late Princess Grace (née Kelly) and Prince Rainier III - flouted royal protocol with unconventional relationships and scandalous antics.

The Grimaldi children became famous for their wild ways, romancing with Hollywood stars, flight attendants, racing drivers, bodyguards and elephant trainers.

But Prince Albert II, Princess Caroline of Hanover, and the youngest, Princess Stephanie, have long since abandoned their hedonistic days, and the prince's wedding to Charlene Wittstock next weekend symbolises a new era for the dynasty.

Wittstock, who has lived in the Mediterranean principality since 2006, will be its first crown princess since Kelly's death in 1982. In the past, the bachelor prince has been romantically linked to supermodels Claudia Schiffer and Angie Everhart, and actress Brooke Shields.

After Prince Albert II ascended the throne in 2005, he acknowledged fathering a son, Alexandre, and a daughter, Jazmin Grace, out of wedlock with different women. A former Air France stewardess from Togo is the mother of his son, aged seven, and a former waitress from California is the mother of his teenage daughter.

Prince Albert II and Wittstock are keen to have children, who would be legitimate heirs to the Grimaldi throne. Children born out of wedlock are not eligible for succession.

The father of the youngest child of the tattooed Princess Stephanie remains a mystery. Her two older children were born during her marriage to her bodyguard.

Stephanie, who was 17 when she survived the car crash that killed her mother in 1982, divorced the bodyguard. Her second marriage also ended in divorce.

Her older sister, Princess Caroline, endured tragedy when her second husband, the father of their three children, died in an accident in a speedboat race. She is now married to German Prince Ernst August of Hanover, but they are living apart after Princess Caroline and their daughter moved back to Monaco.

Despite the turbulence, family friends say their children have been well raised and that the next generation of Grimaldis will be a fine reflection on the family legacy. 

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Launched on 14 December 2012, the primary objective of The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation is to save lives by putting an end to drowning. Our mission is to raise public awareness about the dangers of water, teach children preventive measures, and teach them to swim.

In implementing its actions and projects, the Foundation assists local institutions, relies on the technical expertise of partners, and cooperates with international organisations that share its vision and its goals. For 10 years, more than 1,000,000 people have benefited from the Foundation’s programmes in 43 countries.

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Pieter Coetze

Pieter Coetzé

FINA World Championship bronze medal winner

16 February 2024 - A blisteringly quick final 50m in the 200m backstroke saw SA star Pieter Coetzé powering from eighth to third place to claim the country’s first medal at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha on Friday night.

Swimming in lane eight, the 19-year-old reached the first turn in fifth but then dropped right back to last place by halfway and the 150m mark before making his move, out-touching American Jack Aikins at the finish to claim the bronze medal in a personal best time of 1 minute 55.99 seconds. Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez took gold in 1:55.30 and Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov the silver in 1:55.40.

Pieter Coetze completed a full set of 2022 Commonwealth Games medals when he surged to bronze in the 200m backstroke, adding to his collection of 100m gold and 50m silver in Birmingham.

Coetze pulled a rabbit out of the hat in claiming the 200m backstroke bronze. He turned with 50m to go in lane six in sixth position but blitzed his way down the lane to come home in 29.00, which was 0.95 quicker than gold medallist Brodie Williams.

“I definitely left it a little late, although I’m happy to medal and deliver a PB,” said Coetzé. “I came into the Games, which was my first big one after my Olympics debut last year, aiming to do my best and get close to my PBs. I’ve done that, so I am very chuffed and grateful for the medals.

“ I would have liked to go even faster but coach Rocco Meiring said that when you come to these big Games it’s not about times, it’s about winning medals and making the country proud … I hope I’ve done that.

“Being part of Team SA has been amazing, I’ve learned from them every day in training. Most of them have been here before on this stage. Paris 2024 is the main focus and everything else is a stepping stone. I’ll go back home and see what Rocco and I can do to bring back Olympic gold in 2024.”

At the age of 18, Coetze is still learning how to race. But here he won gold, silver and bronze. Once he gains more experience he’s going to be more than the equal of the best in the world. Paris 2024 could well be his crowning glory.

Pieter oes die medaljes.

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