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Tatjana Schoenmaker

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Tatjana Schoenmaker

Olympic and World Champion

Tatjana Schoenmaker grew up in Roodepoort, and attended Laerskool Fairland in Randburg, and Hoërskool Noordheuwel. When she was 14, Schoenmaker's parents decided that it was time for her to take swimming seriously and enrolled her at TuksSport High School - the only school in the country for high-performance athletic students hoping to train professionally and compete internationally.  

She moved schools to TuksSport High in Pretoria at the age of 15, and later graduated with a B.Comm degree from the University of Pretoria in 2020. She trains with coach Rocco Meiring at the TUKS swimming club at the University of Pretoria under coach Rocco Meiring. In 2021 she set a new world record and won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

2024 - March

This is an Olympic year, so the South African Championships held in the Newton Park pool in Port Elizabeth also counted as the Olympic Trials. 

Tatjana won the 50, 100 and 200m breststroke events, and come second in the 200m IM. In the 200 breaststroke, she finished in 2:19,01, just slightly slower than her world record and 2021 Olympic gold medal time of 2:18,95.

2023

In February 2023 Tatjana swam at the Lausanne Swim Cup in Switzerland, and the FINA World Championships held in Fukuoka, Japan during July. She also competed at the SA National Championships at Port Elizabeth in July, as well as the trials for the 2024 Doha World Championships, which were held at Kings Park in Durban during December.  In Fukuoka, she won the 200m and came second in the 10mmbreastsroke events. 

In November 2023 Tatjana married Joel Smith at a ceremony held in Robertson. Joel is the brother of Rachael Kolisi, who is married to Springbok rugby captain Siya Kolisi.

2022

Tatjana swam at the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, where she retained her title in the 200m breaststroke, but lost to newcomer Lara van Niekerk in the 100m event.

SA Championships - Port Elizabeth

At nationals held at the Newton Park pool in Port Elizabeth in April 2022, Tatjana was beaten in the 50 and 100m breaststroke events by fellow Pretoria and NTS swimmer Lara van Niekerk. Tatjana won the 200m, achieving world championship qualifying times in the 50, 100, and 200m breaststroke events.

In July 2022 they will be competing in the Commonwealth Games, to be held in Birmingham.

Two swimmers from Pretoria - Lara van Niekerk and Tatjana Schoenmaker, racing in the 100m breaststroke at the SA Championships. 

2021

This was a big year for Tatjana. She won the 200m breaststroke, in a new world record time, at the Tokyo Olympic Games. She also won a silver medal in the 100m event.

Olympic Games - Tokyo

TOKYO, July 30, 2021 – Five years ago South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker experienced a “big fall” and cried after failing to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by one-hundredth of a second. The hurt was such that a 19-year-old Schoenmaker had to “start learning to love the sport again”.

Breaststroke Brilliance by Tatjana Schoenmaker is Swimming World Female World Record of the Year

Nothing surrounding the Tokyo Olympics felt inevitable, but Tatjana Schoenmaker came close. By the seventh day of competition, the South African breaststroker had done quite a bit of work.

She’d tallied the Olympic record in prelims of the women’s 100 breast, quicker than Lydia Jacoby’s gold-winning time in a final in which Schoenmaker took silver. She’d also used her prelims heat in the 200 breast to down the Olympic mark in that event.

So with time draining out of the pandemic-impacted Games, if ever a world record was going to fall on the individual side, it just had to be Schoenmaker doing the rewriting, no?

Schoenmaker’s answer was an emphatic affirmative on the morning of July 30 at the Tokyo Aquatics Center. After getting a surprise pulled on her in the 100, she had no intention of sticking around long enough for anyone in the 200 breast final to do the same. The result was an authoritative swim from start to finish, a time of 2:18.95, and the first (and only) women’s world record set at the Tokyo Olympics.

Schoenmaker executed her race plan to perfection – so much so that an outstanding race by Lilly King resulted in the silver medal by a margin of nearly a second. Confident in her speed from her performance in the 100, she went out fast in 1:07.06, well ahead of King, whose only hope was to daze Schoenmaker with her opening 100 meters and hang on.

A 200 breaststroker by specialty, Schoenmaker knew she had the legs coming home. She split identical 35.42s on the middle 50s and roared home with gold secured and only the world record to sort out.

In prelims, she’d taken down the nine-year-old Olympic mark set by Rebecca Soni in London, slicing .43 off the record in 2:19.16. She was under Soni’s old mark with a 2:19.33 to set the pace in the semifinals.

All that stood before her was the 2:19.11 set by Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen in 2013, the oldest textile-suit individual record on the books in women’s swimming, and the third-oldest overall with two enduring super-suit marks from 2009.

The shock on Schoenmaker’s face when she hit the wall and saw the 2:18 – from a nation that had gone 21 years between female Olympic swimming medals, from a swimmer who wanted nothing more upon arrival in Tokyo then a lane and a chance in the final of her preferred event – told the tale.

“I would’ve never even thought, because it’s my first Olympics,” she said. “For me to get a lane in the final, then everyone stands a chance, that’s the thing I’ve always been after. This has exceeded all my expectations, so I couldn’t be happier.”

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/breaststroke-brilliance-by-tatjana-schoenmaker-is-swimming-world-female-world-record-of-the-year/

Tatjana Schoenmaker with coach Rocco Meiring.

2020

Despite a year full of lockdowns and cancellations in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tatjana Schoenmaker managed to lower 4 out of 6 South African records in the women’s breaststroke events, 3/6 of which were also African records. In December, she broke the African record in the 50 LCM breast with a time of 30.52.

She also graduated from the University of Pretoria.

2020 Regional Short-Course Championships - Pretoria

26 September 2020

SA Swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker Breaks 12-Year National Record

Tatjana Schoenmaker has broken the 12-year-old short-course South African record in the 200m breaststroke. Schoenmaker accomplished the feat at the Regional Short-Course Championships in Pretoria. She finished in 2min 18.20sec to lower the mark set by Suzaan van Biljon in 2008 of 2:18.73.

Schoenmaker’s time would have placed her fifth in the 2019 world rankings, and the swim moved her up to 20th on the all-time list. Her previous best was a 2:18.93 at the 2018 South African short-course championships.

Last year, she became the first South African female to win a medal at the World Championships when she won a silver in the 200m breaststroke. In the 100m breaststroke, she finished sixth. She also won the 100m and 200m breaststroke gold medals at the 2019 World University Games.

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Schoenmaker also cleaned up in the breaststroke events, with the Gold Coast Games really announcing her arrival on the big stage.

https://www.sapeople.com/2020/09/26/sa-swimmer-tatjana-schoenmaker-breaks-12-year-national-record/

At the 2020 SC National Championships held in Pietermaritzburg, Tatjana set a new African record with a Fina qualification time in the 100m breaststroke,

2019

Tatjana Schoenmaker had a historic year in 2019, writing her name in the world history books and in South African history.

Schoenmaker’s breakout started at the Napoli 2019 Summer Universiade, where she won titles in the 100m and 200m breaststroke events. Her 100m breaststroke in Naples was good enough to break the South African and African continental record with a 1:06.32.

Three weeks later, at the 2019 FINA World Championships in South Korea, Tatjana broke the South African/African record in the 200m breaststroke (2:21.79) during the semi-finals. The next day, Schoenmaker became the first South African woman to medal at the LC World Championships after finishing in second place behind Russian Yulia Efimova in the 200 breast final.

 FINA Long Course World Championships - Gwangju

26 July 2019

After coming close in the 100, 22-year-old Tatjana Schoenmaker became the first South African woman in history to win a medal at the Long Course World Championships on day six in Gwangju, claiming silver in the women’s 200 breaststroke.

Coming off back-to-back 100 and 200 breast sweeps at the 2018 Commonwealth and 2019 World University Games, she swam to a new Continental Record in the 200 semis in a time of 2:21.79, and then clocked 2:22.52 in the final to place second behind Yuliya Efimova (2:20.12).

Schoenmaker joins Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe and Farida Osman of Egypt as the only female African medalists at LC Worlds. Coventry was an eight-time medalist over three Championships from 2005 to 2009, while Osman was the bronze medalist in the 50 fly two years ago in Budapest.

Summer Universiade - Naples

4-10 July 2019

Golden Schoenmaker becomes the most-decorated South African Universiade swimmer

It was a night of double South African gold with victory for Tayla Lovemore in the 100 metres butterfly coming less than an hour after Tatjana Schoenmaker took gold in the 200m breaststroke, making her the most successful South African swimmer in Universiade history.

Schoenmaker, who won two gold medals at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, is set to to jet to Gwangju in South Korea for the International Swimming Federation World Swimming Championships in a few weeks.

"I just wanted to swim a good time," she said.

"I’m going to the World Championships so I just wanted to see where I am at the moment and I’m in a really good place.

"It's good, I set those records at Commonwealths.

"Those times were really fast so I never thought I’d swim a 2:22 again, that’s why I am super happy."

Schoenmaker won the 100m breaststroke title earlier in the week to go with her 100m breaststroke silver medal from the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei and said she had not planned to peak in Naples.

"It was surprisingly very good compared to what we thought I would be swimming," she said.

"I did not expect to swim these times at all, so going to a World Championships it boosts your confidence a little knowing where you are now.

"Hopefully, I can keep it up and can know if I don’t, I am just there for the experience.

"That’s all I want to get out of it."

2018

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Tatjana won gold medals in women's 100-metre breaststroke (1:06.41) and the women's 200-metre breaststroke (2:22.02). Her teammate Kaylene Corbett also made the final. Two days later, on the 9th of April 2018, she also won the 100m breaststroke.

Schoenmaker smashes Penny Heyns' record at Commonwealth Games

South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker broke swimming legend Penny Heyns’ 1999 100m breaststroke African record, claiming the gold medal in a fast time of 1:06.41.

Tatjana Schoenmaker smashes African record, wins 200 breast gold

09 April 2018

In the Commonwealth final of the women’s 200 breaststroke, South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker took over on the third 50 and pulled away to dominate the field. She came in to win the event in 2:22.02, moving all the way up to 18th all-time in the event. Schoenmaker broke the African record of 2:23.21 set by countrywoman Suzaan van Biljon in 2012.

This is her second African record of the competition, lowering the mark in the 50 breast earlier when she placed 4th in 30.82.

Schoenmaker has steadily been on the rise, impressively winning silver at last summer’s World University Games in a time of 2:24.61. That stood as her personal best until the prelims, where she took the top seed into the final at 2:23.57.

2017

Tatjana made her international debut at the 29th Summer Universiade 2017 held in Taiwan. She came second in the 200m breaststroke and was the only South African to win a medal at the event.

Universiade in Taipei

Schoenmaker swims to SA’s first medal in Taiwan

August 25, 2017

A tough few days of competition at the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei, Taiwan, had a silver lining as Tuks student Tatjana Schoenmaker bagged the first medal for Team South Africa in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke final.

The silver medallist’s competition schedule started earlier this week when she went for glory in the women’s 100-metre breaststroke event, and after finishing top two in both her qualifying heat and semi-final round, where she swam a time of 1min 07.77sec, she was beaten into fourth with a time of 1:07.44.

Schoenmaker then had a score to settle in the 200m breaststroke event, and she yet again qualified for the semi-final with the second-fastest time.

Two day earlier Japanese swimmer Kanako Watanabe narrowly edged out Schoenmaker in the final with a time of 2:24.15 as Schoenmaker finished in a time of 2:24.61 to claim the first 29th Summer Universiade medal for Team South Africa.

Schoenmaker made the final of the women's 100-metre breaststroke, where the Tuks University swimmer placed fourth. Her time of 1min 07.44sec was 0.59sec off winner Kanako Watanabe's 1:06.85 and 0.46sec shy of a bronze medal. It was the second time Schoenmaker (featured in the latest issue of the Team SA magazine) had improved on her personal best time, having swum 1:07.77 in the semi-finals.

Earlier this year, Schoenmaker had become the first South African woman in three years to qualify for a major international championship, this in the Fina World Championships that took place in Budapest last month, but she opted to concentrate instead on the World Student Games.

2016

Come hell or cold, Tatjana dreams Rio

Tatjana Schoenmaker has to repeat a qualifying time

6 Mar 2016

Tatjana Schoenmaker this week got an untimely reminder of the icy training hell that awaits her this winter.

Thanks to a temperamental pump at the outdoor Tuks pool in Pretoria, the water was a tad chilly, but nothing compared to what she will face in late May.

“Ohhhh, it’s so cold,” said the first-year financial sciences student, almost shivering at the memory of the near-zero air temperatures that accosted her last year and the years before.

“We always have to take off the covers wearing gloves, and then you have to take off your clothes and get in the water.

“That’s when you feel swimming isn’t such a good idea,” smiled Schoenmaker, who is on track to make the SA Olympic team for the 2016 Rio Games in August.

There’s not much sympathy to be had from Russian coach Igor Omeltchenko.

“He tells us how he used to cut ice off the top of the water to create lanes so he could swim,” said Schoenmaker, who has no Russian links despite her first name.

If Schoenmaker qualifies for the Olympics, she will depart with the SA team to Europe and the Americas on a lengthy preparation camp from early June. To make the team, all SA swimmers must achieve qualifying times at the national championships, which also serve as the Olympic trials, in Durban in April.

Schoenmaker clocked a 2min 26.50sec qualifying time in the 200m breaststroke in Stellenbosch last weekend; she can surely do it again next month. “I did the time in hard training. I’ll be more rested at nationals.”

So far she is the only female swimmer to bag a 2016 qualifying time, hopefully allaying fears that South Africa could deliver an all-male senior swimming team for the second year in a row.

“It’s unfair for people to assume there’ll be no girls in Rio. Karin [Prinsloo] and Vanessa [Mohr] got qualifying times for London 2012. All three of us just want to get there.”

She dismisses the theory that women don’t like to risk their femininity amid the tough slog of training. “We really work hard. We don’t take it easy, it’s not like we back off.”

SA has produced several breaststroke stars over the years, notably Penny Heyns, Terence Parkin, and most recently Cameron van der Burgh, but Schoenmaker was already in her chosen stroke by the time she’d heard of them.

She wasn’t even born when Heyns won the Olympic breaststroke double at Atlanta in 1996.

Schoenmaker, 18, took a shine to swimming from an early age. “I also did athletics and my parents told me to run slower in a race so I didn’t make the team because it would have clashed with swimming.”

She is still working out the best way to finesse studying alongside training up to five hours a day, which includes some stretching exercises with a Russian ballet teacher organised by Omeltchenko.

“I don’t want to sacrifice the Olympics and I don’t want to sacrifice studying.”

Qualifying for the Rio-bound team will transform that into an easier choice.

We work hard. We don’t take it easy, it’s not like we back off

SA OLYMPIC TRIALS DAY 6: TATJANA THE BRAVE

Last night saw the world and SA sitting on edge as we spurred on Tatjana Schoenmaker  with all our hearts to be the first qualifying female Olympian at the SA Olympic Trials. She came within one hundredth of a second from qualifying. What a brave swim and what a victorious athlete already considering that she actually did this Olympic qualifying time already at the SA Swimming Grand Prix just a while back in Stellenbosch. There she clocked 2:26.50 and last night  2:26.95. Tatjana you are a true champion and we salute you.

2015

Tatjana in the uniform of the TUKSSports High School.  In this year she won the 50m, 100m and 200m bresaststroke events at the 11th African Games took place from September 4–19, 2015 in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.

Tatjana Schoenmaker shines at SA Nationals

21 April 2015

Tatjana Schoenmaker, grade 12 learner at TuksSport High School won the 200m breaststroke in 2:29.23 and was second in the 50m breaststroke in 32.45s. She was also part of the team that won the 4x100 relay in 4:12.04.

Young local swimmer disappointed despite three gold medals

24 April 2015

Despite the fact that she did very well at the national championships, Tatjana Schoenmaker is still disappointed that she could not qualify for the world championships.

Any swimmer who could win three gold and one silver medal at the South African Senior Swimming Championships in Durban should be well satisfied with such a performance.

It is not as if Tatjana Schoenmaker (TuksSport High School) is unhappy with her performance, but she is disappointed that she was unable to qualify for the Fina World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

“My winning times were basically the same as last year. I really would have loved to finish with faster times.”

The closest Schoenmaker came to qualifying was in the 100m breaststroke where her winning time of 1:08.85 was merely a second slower than the expected qualification time of 1:07.88. It should be mentioned that Swimming South Africa has set their own qualification standards according to which swimmers are expected to swim faster times than the qualifying standards set by Fina.

Schoenmaker won the 200m breaststroke in 2:29.23 and was second in the 50m breaststroke in 32.45s. She was also part of the team that won the 4×100 relay in 4:12.04.

The fact that only five swimmers, namely Myles Brown, Cameron van der Burgh, Ayrton Sweeney, Chad le Clos and Sebastien Rousseau (all male), were able to meet the standards set by Swimming South Africa, is slightly worrisome.

According to Schoenmaker, the water in the pool felt slightly cooler than previous years. “I am not sure whether the cold water could have influenced our times,” she said.

Schoenmaker still hopes to be selected for the South African Swimming team that will compete at the Junior World Championships and the Junior Commonwealth Games.

Rocco Meiring, who coached Schoenmaker last year when she broke the South African junior records in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, emphasized that a young swimmer like her should be allowed to reach her full potential as a swimmer in her own time.

“South African swimming has a sad history of trying to fast-track talented young female swimmers to compete at the Olympic Games or a senior World Championships. Unfortunately this has led to a number of swimmers quitting before they fulfilled their potential,” Meiring explained. He predicts that Schoenmaker will be at her best during the 2020 Games.

Schoenmaker said she did not have any role models. “I don’t strive to be like any other swimmer. I am my own person and I want to make my own way into the international swimming arena.”

https://rekordcenturion.co.za/44821/young-local-swimmer-disappointed-despite-three-gold-medals/

2014

During this year Tatjana competed overseas in Australia, Hong Kong, Botswana, Quatar, France and Spain. She also swam in the South African National Championsips - short course and long course - swam at Kings Park Pool Durban  

Against Rene and Renske Schoenmaker's living room wall is their daughter's framed blazer, which she wore when she made the 2014 national swimming team.

Team SA’s medal hunt is off to good start in Botswana

24 May 2014

Flagbearer Tatjana Schoenmaker swam her way to South Africa’s first gold medal of the 2nd Africa Youth Games when she won the 50-metre breaststroke final in a time of 32.54 seconds at the University of Botswana pool.

The 16-year-old Schoenmaker, a Grade 11 pupil at Tuks Sports School and now coached by Wayne Riddin: “It’s a great start to the Games for me, carrying the flag and then winning my first race. Going into these Games I’ve been hoping to try and win six medals.”

2013

At the of 2013 Tatjana represented South Africa at the 10th Africa Junior Swimming Championships held in Zambia - where she won 6 gold medals!

 

2023

2022

SA Championships - Port Elizabeth

At nationals held at the Newton Park pool in Port Elizabeth in April 2022, Tatjana was beaten in the 50 and 100m breaststroke events by fellow Pretoria and NTS swimmer Lara van Niekerk. Tatjana won the 200m, achieving world championship qualifying times in the 50, 100, and 200m breaststroke events.

In July 2022 they will be competing in the Commonwealth Games, to be held in Birmingham.

Results to come!

2021 - Olympic Games - Tokyo

TOKYO, July 30, 2021 – Five years ago South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker experienced a “big fall” and cried after failing to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by one-hundredth of a second. The hurt was such that a 19-year-old Schoenmaker had to “start learning to love the sport again”.

Breaststroke Brilliance by Tatjana Schoenmaker is Swimming World Female World Record of the Year

Nothing surrounding the Tokyo Olympics felt inevitable, but Tatjana Schoenmaker came close. By the seventh day of competition, the South African breaststroker had done quite a bit of work.

She’d tallied the Olympic record in prelims of the women’s 100 breast, quicker than Lydia Jacoby’s gold-winning time in a final in which Schoenmaker took silver. She’d also used her prelims heat in the 200 breast to down the Olympic mark in that event.

So with time draining out of the pandemic-impacted Games, if ever a world record was going to fall on the individual side, it just had to be Schoenmaker doing the rewriting, no?

Schoenmaker’s answer was an emphatic affirmative on the morning of July 30 at the Tokyo Aquatics Center. After getting a surprise pulled on her in the 100, she had no intention of sticking around long enough for anyone in the 200 breast final to do the same. The result was an authoritative swim from start to finish, a time of 2:18.95, and the first (and only) women’s world record set at the Tokyo Olympics.

Schoenmaker executed her race plan to perfection – so much so that an outstanding race by Lilly King resulted in the silver medal by a margin of nearly a second. Confident in her speed from her performance in the 100, she went out fast in 1:07.06, well ahead of King, whose only hope was to daze Schoenmaker with her opening 100 meters and hang on.

A 200 breaststroker by specialty, Schoenmaker knew she had the legs coming home. She split identical 35.42s on the middle 50s and roared home with gold secured and only the world record to sort out.

In prelims, she’d taken down the nine-year-old Olympic mark set by Rebecca Soni in London, slicing .43 off the record in 2:19.16. She was under Soni’s old mark with a 2:19.33 to set the pace in the semifinals.

All that stood before her was the 2:19.11 set by Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen in 2013, the oldest textile-suit individual record on the books in women’s swimming, and the third-oldest overall with two enduring super-suit marks from 2009.

The shock on Schoenmaker’s face when she hit the wall and saw the 2:18 – from a nation that had gone 21 years between female Olympic swimming medals, from a swimmer who wanted nothing more upon arrival in Tokyo then a lane and a chance in the final of her preferred event – told the tale.

“I would’ve never even thought, because it’s my first Olympics,” she said. “For me to get a lane in the final, then everyone stands a chance, that’s the thing I’ve always been after. This has exceeded all my expectations, so I couldn’t be happier.”

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/breaststroke-brilliance-by-tatjana-schoenmaker-is-swimming-world-female-world-record-of-the-year/

 

Coach Rocco Meiring with Tatjana Schoenmaker

2020 Regional Short-Course Championships - Pretoria

26 September 2020

SA Swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker Breaks 12-Year National Record

Tatjana Schoenmaker has broken the 12-year-old short-course South African record in the 200m breaststroke. Schoenmaker accomplished the feat at the Regional Short-Course Championships in Pretoria. She finished in 2min 18.20sec to lower the mark set by Suzaan van Biljon in 2008 of 2:18.73.

Schoenmaker’s time would have placed her fifth in the 2019 world rankings, and the swim moved her up to 20th on the all-time list. Her previous best was a 2:18.93 at the 2018 South African short-course championships.

Last year, she became the first South African female to win a medal at the World Championships when she won a silver in the 200m breaststroke. In the 100m breaststroke, she finished sixth. She also won the 100m and 200m breaststroke gold medals at the 2019 World University Games.

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Schoenmaker also cleaned up in the breaststroke events, with the Gold Coast Games really announcing her arrival on the big stage.

https://www.sapeople.com/2020/09/26/sa-swimmer-tatjana-schoenmaker-breaks-12-year-national-record/

2019 - Summer Universiade - Naples

4-10 July 2019

Golden Schoenmaker becomes the most-decorated South African Universiade swimmer

It was a night of double South African gold with victory for Tayla Lovemore in the 100 metres butterfly coming less than an hour after Tatjana Schoenmaker took gold in the 200m breaststroke, making her the most successful South African swimmer in Universiade history.

Schoenmaker, who won two gold medals at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, is set to to jet to Gwangju in South Korea for the International Swimming Federation World Swimming Championships in a few weeks.

"I just wanted to swim a good time," she said.

"I’m going to the World Championships so I just wanted to see where I am at the moment and I’m in a really good place.

"It's good, I set those records at Commonwealths.

"Those times were really fast so I never thought I’d swim a 2:22 again, that’s why I am super happy."

Schoenmaker won the 100m breaststroke title earlier in the week to go with her 100m breaststroke silver medal from the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei and said she had not planned to peak in Naples.

"It was surprisingly very good compared to what we thought I would be swimming," she said.

"I did not expect to swim these times at all, so going to a World Championships it boosts your confidence a little knowing where you are now.

"Hopefully, I can keep it up and can know if I don’t, I am just there for the experience.

"That’s all I want to get out of it."

2019 - FINA Long Course World Championships - Gwangju

26 July 2019

After coming close in the 100, 22-year-old Tatjana Schoenmaker became the first South African woman in history to win a medal at the Long Course World Championships on day six in Gwangju, claiming silver in the women’s 200 breaststroke.

Coming off back-to-back 100 and 200 breast sweeps at the 2018 Commonwealth and 2019 World University Games, she swam to a new Continental Record in the 200 semis in a time of 2:21.79, and then clocked 2:22.52 in the final to place second behind Yuliya Efimova (2:20.12).

Schoenmaker joins Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe and Farida Osman of Egypt as the only female African medalists at LC Worlds. Coventry was an eight-time medalist over three Championships from 2005 to 2009, while Osman was the bronze medalist in the 50 fly two years ago in Budapest.

2018 - Commonwealth Games - Brisbane

Schoenmaker smashes Penny Heyns' record at Commonwealth Games

South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker broke swimming legend Penny Heyns’ 1999 100m breaststroke African record, claiming the gold medal in a fast time of 1:06.41.

Tatjana Schoenmaker smashes African record, wins 200 breast gold

09 April 2018

In the Commonwealth final of the women’s 200 breaststroke, South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker took over on the third 50 and pulled away to dominate the field. She came in to win the event in 2:22.02, moving all the way up to 18th all-time in the event. Schoenmaker broke the African record of 2:23.21 set by countrywoman Suzaan van Biljon in 2012.

This is her second African record of the competition, lowering the mark in the 50 breast earlier when she placed 4th in 30.82.

Schoenmaker has steadily been on the rise, impressively winning silver at last summer’s World University Games in a time of 2:24.61. That stood as her personal best until the prelims, where she took the top seed into the final at 2:23.57.

2017 - Universiade in Taipei

Schoenmaker swims to SA’s first medal in Taiwan

August 25, 2017

A tough few days of competition at the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei, Taiwan, had a silver lining as Tuks student Tatjana Schoenmaker bagged the first medal for Team South Africa in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke final.

The silver medallist’s competition schedule started earlier this week when she went for glory in the women’s 100-metre breaststroke event, and after finishing top two in both her qualifying heat and semi-final round, where she swam a time of 1min 07.77sec, she was beaten into fourth with a time of 1:07.44.

Schoenmaker then had a score to settle in the 200m breaststroke event, and she yet again qualified for the semi-final with the second-fastest time.

Two day earlier Japanese swimmer Kanako Watanabe narrowly edged out Schoenmaker in the final with a time of 2:24.15 as Schoenmaker finished in a time of 2:24.61 to claim the first 29th Summer Universiade medal for Team South Africa.

Schoenmaker made the final of the women's 100-metre breaststroke, where the Tuks University swimmer placed fourth. Her time of 1min 07.44sec was 0.59sec off winner Kanako Watanabe's 1:06.85 and 0.46sec shy of a bronze medal. It was the second time Schoenmaker (featured in the latest issue of the Team SA magazine) had improved on her personal best time, having swum 1:07.77 in the semi-finals.

Earlier this year, Schoenmaker had become the first South African woman in three years to qualify for a major international championship, this in the Fina World Championships that took place in Budapest last month, but she opted to concentrate instead on the World Student Games.

Come hell or cold, Tatjana dreams Rio

Tatjana Schoenmaker has to repeat a qualifying time

6 Mar 2016

Tatjana Schoenmaker this week got an untimely reminder of the icy training hell that awaits her this winter.

Thanks to a temperamental pump at the outdoor Tuks pool in Pretoria, the water was a tad chilly, but nothing compared to what she will face in late May.

“Ohhhh, it’s so cold,” said the first-year financial sciences student, almost shivering at the memory of the near-zero air temperatures that accosted her last year and the years before.

“We always have to take off the covers wearing gloves, and then you have to take off your clothes and get in the water.

“That’s when you feel swimming isn’t such a good idea,” smiled Schoenmaker, who is on track to make the SA Olympic team for the 2016 Rio Games in August.

There’s not much sympathy to be had from Russian coach Igor Omeltchenko.

“He tells us how he used to cut ice off the top of the water to create lanes so he could swim,” said Schoenmaker, who has no Russian links despite her first name.

If Schoenmaker qualifies for the Olympics, she will depart with the SA team to Europe and the Americas on a lengthy preparation camp from early June. To make the team, all SA swimmers must achieve qualifying times at the national championships, which also serve as the Olympic trials, in Durban in April.

Schoenmaker clocked a 2min 26.50sec qualifying time in the 200m breaststroke in Stellenbosch last weekend; she can surely do it again next month. “I did the time in hard training. I’ll be more rested at nationals.”

So far she is the only female swimmer to bag a 2016 qualifying time, hopefully allaying fears that South Africa could deliver an all-male senior swimming team for the second year in a row.

“It’s unfair for people to assume there’ll be no girls in Rio. Karin [Prinsloo] and Vanessa [Mohr] got qualifying times for London 2012. All three of us just want to get there.”

She dismisses the theory that women don’t like to risk their femininity amid the tough slog of training. “We really work hard. We don’t take it easy, it’s not like we back off.”

SA has produced several breaststroke stars over the years, notably Penny Heyns, Terence Parkin, and most recently Cameron van der Burgh, but Schoenmaker was already in her chosen stroke by the time she’d heard of them.

She wasn’t even born when Heyns won the Olympic breaststroke double at Atlanta in 1996.

Schoenmaker, 18, took a shine to swimming from an early age. “I also did athletics and my parents told me to run slower in a race so I didn’t make the team because it would have clashed with swimming.”

She is still working out the best way to finesse studying alongside training up to five hours a day, which includes some stretching exercises with a Russian ballet teacher organised by Omeltchenko.

“I don’t want to sacrifice the Olympics and I don’t want to sacrifice studying.”

Qualifying for the Rio-bound team will transform that into an easier choice.

We work hard. We don’t take it easy, it’s not like we back off

Tatjana Schoenmaker shines at SA Nationals

21 April 2015

Tatjana Schoenmaker, grade 12 learner at TuksSport High School won the 200m breaststroke in 2:29.23 and was second in the 50m breaststroke in 32.45s. She was also part of the team that won the 4x100 relay in 4:12.04.

Young local swimmer disappointed despite three gold medals

24 April 2015

Despite the fact that she did very well at the national championships, Tatjana Schoenmaker is still disappointed that she could not qualify for the world championships.

Any swimmer who could win three gold and one silver medal at the South African Senior Swimming Championships in Durban should be well satisfied with such a performance.

It is not as if Tatjana Schoenmaker (TuksSport High School) is unhappy with her performance, but she is disappointed that she was unable to qualify for the Fina World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

“My winning times were basically the same as last year. I really would have loved to finish with faster times.”

The closest Schoenmaker came to qualifying was in the 100m breaststroke where her winning time of 1:08.85 was merely a second slower than the expected qualification time of 1:07.88. It should be mentioned that Swimming South Africa has set their own qualification standards according to which swimmers are expected to swim faster times than the qualifying standards set by Fina.

Schoenmaker won the 200m breaststroke in 2:29.23 and was second in the 50m breaststroke in 32.45s. She was also part of the team that won the 4×100 relay in 4:12.04.

The fact that only five swimmers, namely Myles Brown, Cameron van der Burgh, Ayrton Sweeney, Chad le Clos and Sebastien Rousseau (all male), were able to meet the standards set by Swimming South Africa, is slightly worrisome.

According to Schoenmaker, the water in the pool felt slightly cooler than previous years. “I am not sure whether the cold water could have influenced our times,” she said.

Schoenmaker still hopes to be selected for the South African Swimming team that will compete at the Junior World Championships and the Junior Commonwealth Games.

Rocco Meiring, who coached Schoenmaker last year when she broke the South African junior records in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, emphasized that a young swimmer like her should be allowed to reach her full potential as a swimmer in her own time.

“South African swimming has a sad history of trying to fast-track talented young female swimmers to compete at the Olympic Games or a senior World Championships. Unfortunately this has led to a number of swimmers quitting before they fulfilled their potential,” Meiring explained. He predicts that Schoenmaker will be at her best during the 2020 Games.

Schoenmaker said she did not have any role models. “I don’t strive to be like any other swimmer. I am my own person and I want to make my own way into the international swimming arena.”

https://rekordcenturion.co.za/44821/young-local-swimmer-disappointed-despite-three-gold-medals/

Africa Games - Brazzaville.

8 September 2015

Tuks Swimming’s Tatjana Schoenmaker, the flag bearer for Team SA at the African Youth Games in Botswana last year, led from start to finish winning with a time of 2:28.84. Tatjana, a grade 12 TuksSport High School swimmer excelled in Brazzaville as she collected Gold medals in the 50m (32.49), 100m (1:09.47), and 200m (2:28.84) Breaststroke events respectively as well as a gold in the 4 x 100m Medley Relay (4:12.36).

Team SA’s medal hunt is off to good start in Botswana

24 May 2014

Flagbearer Tatjana Schoenmaker swam her way to South Africa’s first gold medal of the 2nd Africa Youth Games when she won the 50-metre breaststroke final in a time of 32.54 seconds at the University of Botswana pool.

The 16-year-old Schoenmaker, a Grade 11 pupil at Tuks Sports School and now coached by Wayne Riddin: “It’s a great start to the Games for me, carrying the flag and then winning my first race. Going into these Games I’ve been hoping to try and win six medals.”

<img src="/images/Swimmers/Tatjana/Tatjana-S

Out of the Pool - meet Olympic swim hope, Tatjana

12 March 2021

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She’s one of South Africa’s top medal hopes for the Tokyo Olympics and when it comes to breaststroke, she’s the second fastest woman on the planet. She won double gold at the last Commonwealth Games, beating a record set by South African superstar Penny Heyns that had stood for 19 years. And she has to get in the water every single day, no matter how she feels. But who is TATJANA SCHOENMAKER? SHIRLEY FAIRALL found out.

TATJANA SCHOENMAKER (23) grew up in Roodepoort. She moved schools to TuksSport High in Pretoria at the age of 15, and last year graduated with a B Comm from the University of Pretoria. She has qualified to compete in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke races in the Tokyo Olympics

First swimming memory? Water safety classes in pre-primary school. We had to jump into the water with our clothes over our costumes and take our clothes off in the water.

How did it feel to win double Commonwealth gold at 20? When I won the first medal [the 200m breaststroke] and saw my time, I was shocked and chuffed. I was the first South African woman in eight years to earn a Commonwealth medal in the pool. What an honour! When I then won the 100m breaststroke, I didn’t realise I’d set a new African time and broken Penny Heyns’ record: I hadn’t set out to do that. Realising her record had been standing for just about my whole life was an amazing, overwhelming moment.

After the medal ceremony, you have to walk around the pool with your medals. I was overwhelmed for the first ceremony but my memory of the second is the rousing music and my parents dancing in the stands. My dad’s voice was gone and my mom had no more tears left. Such a happy moment.

What contact did you have with Penny afterwards? We saw each other face to face at the national championships in South Africa a week later. One of the great things about her is that she still goes to them. She was just so encouraging, as she always is.

3

Tatjana was the first South African woman in eight years to win a Commonwealth medal in the pool. ‘Realising I had broken the record of Penny Heyns which had been standing just about my whole life was overwhelming,’ she says

Your 100m and 200m breaststroke races in the Tokyo Olympics? I have high hopes!

Has Covid-19 affected your training? Initially the hard lockdown in 2020 was really difficult with me not being able to train for a few weeks. And then not being able to go to an Olympics for which we had trained so hard! But then I realised health and lives are so much more important. Fortunately, during most of the pandemic our pool facilities at Tuks [Pretoria] University have remained open, and we’ve continued to train as if the Olympics is going ahead.

Your training? Every week I do eight two-hour swimming sessions and two one-hour gym sessions. It takes discipline!

‘I can’t think of a nicer person to break my record… It’s really hard to win a gold medal but I think even more impressive is her humility’  — South African Olympic champion and swimming legend, Penny Heyns 

Training diet? Egg and toast for breakfast. Veg, protein and carbs for lunch and dinner. I tend to eat the same things because I know they work for me.

Ultimate comfort food? Carrot cake. I eat healthily during the week but if I want ice cream or chocolate I don’t feel bad about it. It gives me extra energy!

7

How do you cope with the competitive pressure? It can be hard. I find that I do best when I focus on myself and ignore the expectations of others.

You and God? Even winning Commonwealth gold is nothing compared to how God makes me feel. I don’t think we have any concept of how great He is.

How do you connect with God? I take time alone with Him. I go to a church called Every Nation, and walk out filled with energy and the sense that nothing in my week can defeat me. I feel alive in His presence.

8

Tatjana: ‘Even winning Commonwealth gold is nothing compared to how God makes me feel. I don’t think we have any concept of how great He is. I walk out of church filled with energy and the sense that nothing in my week can defeat me.’

What would you do if you couldn’t swim again? That’s a hard question! I’ve seen people who have to stop but don’t want to and I can’t imagine how that feels.

Worst swimming moment? There’s not a single moment I think of as my worst. Sometimes you have a bad gala and it can be difficult to build yourself up afterwards, but that’s part of training.

10

‘The competitive pressure can be hard. I find that I do best when I focus on myself and ignore the expectations of others,’ says Tatjana

People who’ve inspired me are… Obviously Penny Heyns! Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Chad le Clos because I know how much hard work it takes to achieve what they have. But I’ve never wanted to emulate anybody. I’m not them and I like finding my own way.

Guilty pleasure? I don’t have time for one! Even series binge-watching is a foreign concept to me.

Make me president and I’d… Rock at it!

What do you feel about being South African? Proud.

 

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Suzaan van Biljon

Posted in Champions.

Suzaan van Biljon

World Championship Gold medal winner

Suzaan matriculated at Eunice Meisies Skool in Bloemfontein, where she swam with coach Lynette Wessels at the Otters Swimming Club.  After winning the 200m breaststroke at the South African swimming championships held in Durban in 2004.  In 2005 she moved to the High Performance Squad at the University of Pretoria, where she swam under coach Igor Olmetshenko. 

After taking a break from swimming following the 2008 Olympics, where she placed 5th in prelims of the 100 breaststroke before stumbling in the semi’s and failing to advance, Suzaan returned in 2011 to compete at the 2012 Olympic Games, after training with Graham Hill at the Seagull Swimming Club. Later she moved up to Pretoria where she trained under Igor Omeltchenko.

She finished 7th at the 2012 London Olympics, making her the only female South African swimmer to make a final. She retired in 2013 as the African record holder in the 200 long course breaststroke, with a 2:23.21 done at the 2012 Olympics, as well as the 100 and 200 in short course meters.

Suzaan was the Head Coach at Tuks Swimming Satelite Club in Pretoria, and in 2020 she became the Aquatics Manager at Rhenish Girls' High School in Stellenbosch.

Another victory in the water for Van Biljon

20 Apr 2006

Suzaan van Biljon has come a long way since winning her first national title as a plucky 14-year-old.

And on Wednesday night she capped off a great season, which has included Commonwealth Games bronze and World Short Course silver, by winning the 100m breaststroke title at the Telkom South African National Championships in Durban.

Van Biljon swam 1:09,38 to finish well ahead of Daniella Zaverdinos (1:12,32) and Claire Archibald (1:12,78), and with her 18th birthday only a week away had plenty to celebrate.

“I felt quite bad in the water tonight but am pleased with that time,” she admitted afterwards. “We only had two days after we arrived back from Shanghai before coming here, so I think my body is more tired than I realise,” she added. “It’s great to win my third title in the 100m breaststroke.

There has been such a big change since I won my first one four years ago. I have moved to Pretoria [from Bloemfontein] and have had three coaches in the meantime, and I have been very surprised at how quickly my times have dropped since January last year.”

Van Biljon still has the 50m and 200m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley to come, but described the rest of the meet as a “fun gala”, before rushing off to watch her friend and teammate William Diering winning the men’s 100m breaststroke in an impressive 1:02,46.

Meanwhile, another of the country’s Commonwealth Games medallists, George du Rand, put in his usual slick performance in the 200m backstroke, which he won in 2:00,91. Chris King was second in 2:06,34 and Rohan Jacobs third in 2:06,89.

“I was hoping for somewhere around this time, so I’m happy, but obviously it would have been nice to go under two minutes,” Du Rand said after the race.

“I’ve done a lot of racing over the last two months, though, so to be around my best time is satisfactory. I am still feeling surprisingly good, although today my body was a bit sore,” he said, adding that he is planning to still defend his 100m butterfly title at this meet.

Out of the Water

2006

Her face has been splashed in newspapers around the world, but who is Suzaan van Biljon really?

When Suzaan van Biljon sits down for our interview, she is probably expecting the usual line of swimming-centered questions. The 18-year-old seems quite used to the interrogation setup and doesn’t show the least bit of unease. I tell her that my focus is not on swimming but on who Suzaan van Biljon really is – her expression doesn’t change.

“If that’s the angle, I don’t know how much I can help you,” she says with just the faintest smile. “I don’t talk about myself easily.”

Perhaps a bit like a chocolate éclair toffee?

“So you’ve heard? At the TuksSport matric farewell our principal, Ms. Hettie, compared me to a toffee: tough on the outside but soft on the inside – and also capable of pulling out a filling! It’s a perfect description of me.” Suzaan’s smile broadens and we get onto the relatively familiar ground of her strong points.

Goal-orientated, disciplined, and determined – adjectives every champion swimmer needs in their summarized fact-file. But what would the in-depth, noholds-barred biography of the 18-year-old reveal? “I guess one of my weak points is my impatience. If don’t get the results I work towards I can get pretty upset.” Steadily the ice thaws. “I think I intimidate people quite easily because I speak my mind, which isn’t always a bad thing, but I could probably chill out a bit more.”

 Suzaan’s serious nature shouldn’t, however, be labeled as a flaw too hastily. It is exactly because of her intense approach to life that the swimmer has managed to excel in her sport. This year alone, the matric pupil has snapped up three medals on the international stage – bronze at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, silver at the Ring Short Course in Germany, and gold at the Canada Pan Pacific Championships. A tough toffee indeed

“Like every individual sport, swimming requires a lot of hard work,” Suzaan says as she explains the demands of being on top. “It’s like a full-time job because I train for nearly six hours every day. But I don’t mind – I get out what I put in.”

We dry ourselves of the swim talk and get back on track with Suzaan’s behind-the-scenes life. “There’s much more to do in Pretoria and it’s more exciting.” She explains the effect big city life can have on a girl from Bloem. “When my dad and I came to check out the HPC (High Performance Centre) three years ago, I told him this is where I need to be. Since coming here in 2004, I’ve met many people and I’ve learned a lot.” She pauses for a while before speaking again. “You might not believe this, but I’m a lot less reserved now than before I came.”

 So what does the future hold? Apart from dominating the women’s breaststroke event, Suzaan would like to study Hotel Management at the University of Pretoria next year.

“I can bake but I can’t cook, that’s why I’d like to study in this direction,” she says. “One of my dreams is to one day be a good wife and mother.” She laughs and I begin to see the soft interior of the toffee.

 After cooking we move on to a passion Suzaan actually has experience with – animals. She joyfully recounts how her hamsters had destroyed the newlylaid wooden floor of her Bloemfontein home when she was small and also informs me of her love for meerkats. As the word ‘love’ escapes her lips, I notice a twinkle in her eye and ask her if the word can be used in connection with a two-legged animal as well.

“Yes, I have a boyfriend. He studies at Tuks and we train together.” She blushes slightly, but says no more. The enigmatic Suzaan courteously thanks me for the interview, gets up and disappears round the corner

Suzaan is ready to breast the heights

25 Mar 2007 
The country’s top breaststroker is still trying to reach the heights of swimming queen Penny Heyns, whose marks in the 50m, 100m and 200m races were world records at the turn of the century.

Even so, Van Biljon’s performances are good enough to make her the first female South African to win a world championship medal in Melbourne this week. The 100m breaststroke final is scheduled for Tuesday evening and the 200m for Friday. But Van Biljon, 18, points out that her strength is the longer race.

“I’m not a sprinter,” she said at the high-performance centre in Pretoria, the day before leaving for Australia. Her preference for the 200m was obvious during the interview. In the longer race, she uses 17 strokes a length but, in the 100m, “I have no idea”. She knew her personal best for the 200m — 2min 25.44sec — o the top of her head.

When I asked what it was in the 100m, she had to look it up on her cell. “I needed it to ll out a form. I had to SMS my mom to find out — she knows my times.” It turns out her best 100m effort came at the 2005 World Championships in Montreal, where she ended sixth (1:08.38), beating former SA swimmer Sarah Poewe in the process. She was eighth in the 200m that year, although she has improved significantly in those two years.

Her current personal best would have been good enough for silver two years ago. She is ranked fourth in the world in the 200m and has already claimed silverware at the Pan Pacific Championships (gold) and Commonwealth Games (bronze). Heyns, who won two Olympic golds and a bronze in her illustrious career, never won a world championship medal.

If successful, Van Biljon would be the first. “Swimming’s been about training and doing well,” she says, adding that her primary goal is the Beijing Olympics next year. “If all goes well, I want to be No 1 in the 200m, and stay No 1 until it’s time to quit.” Despite her big dreams, Van Biljon is down to earth. She’s wearing shorts for the interview and when the photographer asks her to pose, her response was typical of any teenage girl: “Oh, don’t take pictures of my legs. They’re so hairy!”

Swimmers, male and fe male, stay unshaved until competition. “We dry-shave. It takes o a layer of dead skin — it helps with sensation in the water.” Van Biljon, a hospitality management student at Tukkies, shares a house with other Pretoria-based students, including 400m hurdles star LJ van Zyl. She’s originally from the same city as Neethling, Bloemfontein, although she didn’t meet him until she started competing at the senior national championships. “I knew his sister [Jean-Marie], though.”

One of the biggest advantages of growing up in the Free State capital was the pets Van Biljon got from a farmer friend — two tame meerkats. “They’re the most adorable animals ever.” Since moving to Pretoria she’s had to give up the animals, although in her room in her digs is a picture of a meerkat, drawn by her boyfriend, swimmer Byron Ferguson. Perhaps the sketch will soon have a world championship medal for company. ý For results from the World Championships, go to:

Suzaan’s Turkish delight

May 11, 2012
Beijing Olympian Suzaan van Biljon may have taken a two-year hiatus from the pool but she’s come back stronger and faster and has sealed the last leg of the stringent qualifying criteria to represent Team South Africa at the London Olympics later this year.

Her time of 2min 26.85sec in Turkey recently saw her beating the Olympic A standard of 2min 26.88sec for the 200-metre breaststroke. That might have been cutting it fine (by just 0.03sec) but she’d already swum times of 2:25.88 and 2:26.74 at the national championships in Durban last month.

Her local and international qualifying times plus the fact that she achieved a qualifying time at national champs would seem to have rubber-stamped her place on Team SA.

Van Biljon’s mom and dad (Mariette and Peet) were on hand to see her clock that first qualifying time in Durban. “The whole Absa stadium were cheering her on in the semi-final… stroke by stroke,” says a proud Mariette. “I have never heard anything like that in my whole life!! I did not even watch the last 50 metres!┬áShe said that she has nothing to lose, and just went for it!!! She has unreal big match temperament. Me and my husband both cried… ”

Bloemfontein born and bred, Van Biljon moved to Durban after her post Olympics two-year chill period but has since moved up to Pretoria where she trains under Igor Omeltchenko who was with her in Turkey.

“I’m ecstatic about qualifying and meeting the criteria,” she told Road to London 2012. “I honestly didn’t have the slightest bit of expectation on doing the qualifying time. So it still seems a little surreal,” grinned the 24-year-old.

The bizarre thing about Van Biljon’s Olympic quest is that she had been focusing her training for the last three months on the 100m breaststroke but failed to nail that qualifying time in Durban (although she won all three breaststroke events). But her and the coach realised she still had a chance in the 200m. It was then that her big match temperament came to the fore and she swam the first of her qualifying times.

“I mean I only started swimming about 16 months ago and making the Olympics was always an afterthought, all I wanted was to enjoy my swimming this time round so I’m incredibly blessed!”

But the Turkish long-course championships weren’t without their complications. She says: “The competition in Turkey? Well that was something, I totally lost my feel for my stroke when I arrived in Istanbul and my body took quite a beating on the flight there so I wasn’t in a very good condition.

“Coach Igor and I both knew I was not looking so great in the water and we knew it would be really tough.”

Her solution, she just put herself in the hands of fate. “During my warm-up for the 200m breast I made peace with the race that was about to come, that whatever happens must just happen (something my boyfriend Shaun had told me earlier that day).”

On to the actual race she was still not holding out much hope. “During my race I was convinced I was not going to do the time, I was hurting and my technique felt terrible but I tried as hard as I could. I touched the wall and took a few seconds before I looked at the time board and then when I saw the 2.26.85… I was shaking my head, thinking… ‘that’s not possible’.

“My coach was so happy, me too… both relieved and amazed that I would have another opportunity to go to the Olympics.” Van Biljon was still down to swim the 100m breaststroke at the competition but pulled out. “I only swam the 200m as my coach said ‘the work is done and now you can relax’ so no 100m and we had three wonderful days in Istanbul.”

Her next and far bigger dream no doubt will be to have a few wonderful days in the Olympic Pool in London later this year.
http://www.teamsa.co.za/durban-then-istanbul-is-next-stop-london-for-suzaan/
Suzaan van Biljon, Jade Edmistone and Jessica Hardy - 9th FINA world champs SC

Van Biljon calls it a day, seeks new horizons

29 September 2013 - 02:22

Suzaan van Biljon, SA's top female swimmer, has quit the sport to focus on her career. Van Biljon last year became the first SA female swimmer to make an Olympic final since Penny Heyns and Sarah Poewe at the 2000 Games in Sydney, and in London she broke Heyns's 13-year-old 200m breaststroke record.

But at 25 and struggling without financial support, Van Biljon made the decision to pack it in.

''I felt it was time to move on, that it was a good age to start a career," said Van Biljon, who had quit after the 2008 Olympics before returning in 2010.

''I had to start looking out for myself financially. I wasn't making a living out of it," said Van Biljon, who had won medals at the Commonwealth Games and world short- course championships.

She admitted feeling she had been discarded by Swimming SA (SSA), but insisted that she harboured no resentment.

''When I quit in 2008 I was angry, but not this time. I am at peace with my decision," said the swimmer, who probably possessed more talent than self-belief.

After finishing seventh at the 2012 Olympics - she had not even expected to qualify for the Games - the normally reserved Van Biljon bubbled with delight as she spoke about giving the 2016 Games her best shot. For the first time she looked as though she believed she was podium material, but funding from the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) ran dry this year after losing her world ranking.

Van Biljon's 200m ranking dropped from seventh last year to 114th this year. Her post-Olympic efforts were hampered by injuries and illness, but Sascoc show no sentiment for past glories - ask Olympic silver medallist Caster Semenya, who also lost her funding.

''She's one of our great swimmers," said SSA high-performance manager Dean Price of Van Biljon. ''But you can only support people for so long. Chad [Le Clos] and Cameron [van der Burgh] kept their world rankings, but she didn't."

Price is confident that the programme to push younger girls will pay off, pointing out that of SA's 1000 top competitive female swimmers, only 20 were older than 20.

''We are pushing the younger swimmers to try to keep them when they do get older."

SSA coach Graham Hill said that of SA's eight allotted swimmers picked for the 2010 Youth Olympics, only four had actually qualified - three boys and one girl.

''Next year I think we'll have 10 to 12 swimmers doing qualifying times. But we're only allowed to take eight, so we could be looking at who to leave out."

For the immediate future, however, women's breaststroke competition in SA will be the poorer without Van Biljon, who is now working at an aesthetic clinic in Pretoria.

Suzaan van Biljon, a Gr 12 learner and one of the country’s most promising swimmers, was the recipient of the most prestigious award of the evening – the Academy Director’s trophy for outstanding achievement in academics and in sport. Suzaan’s medal success at the Commonwealth Games (bronze), the Ring Short Course in Germany (silver), the Canada Pan Pacific Championship (gold) and excellent school results made her a worthy recipient of this trophy. With an A and two Bs already in her pocket, she is hoping to pass the rest of her matric subjects with equally good symbols.

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William Diering

Posted in Champions.

William Diering

FINA World Championship bronze medal winner

William Grant Diering born on May 7, 1986 in Sandton. He swam with the TuksSport club in Pretoria, where he specialized in breaststroke events. William graduated from the University of Pretoria with a B.Comm degree.

Leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games, he captured the men's 200 m breaststroke title at the South African Championships in Durban with a new national record of 2:11.88 to assure his selection to the Olympic team under the FINA A-cut (2:13.70) and shave 1.72 seconds off the standard previously set by Terence Parkin in 2000.

William specialized in breaststroke events. He finished twelfth in the 200 m breaststroke at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and also set a new South African record (2:06.85) to earn a bronze medal at the FINA World Short Course Championships few months later in Manchester, England.

Diering competed for the South African swimming squad, alongside his teammate Neil Versfeld, in the men's 200 m breaststroke at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Leading up to the Games, he captured the men's 200 m breaststroke title at the South African Championships in Johannesburg with a new national record of 2:11.88 to assure his selection to the Olympic team under the FINA A-cut (2:13.70) and shave 1.72 seconds off the standard previously set by Terence Parkin in 2000. Swimming in heat six, Diering threw down a new African record in 2:10.39 to grab the eighth seed for the semifinals, and then enjoyed his teammate Versfeld joining him to the roster by 0.11 seconds to round out the top four of their heat.

Followed by the next morning's semifinals, Diering missed the top eight final with a twelfth-place time in 2:10.21, and lost a spirited challenge for another African record feat to Versfeld (2:10.06) by just a small fraction of a second.

Shortly after the Olympics, Diering edged out Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli by nearly two seconds to claim the 200 m breaststroke title at the African Swimming Championships in Johannesburg with a time of 2:16.00.

Igor Borysik of Ukraine celebrates the silver medal, Kristopher Gilchrist of United Kingdom the gold medal and William Diering at the 2008 World Short Course Chamionships in Manchester. 

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Kathryn Meeklim

Posted in Champions.

Kathryn Meeklim

400 IM world record holder

Katheryn Meaklim was born on 20 July 1989 in Johannesburg. She mainly competes in the Women's 200 and 400 m individual medley. She grew up in the Durban suburb of Kloof and swam with coach Graham Hill in Westville and represented Natal

Meaklim is the daughter of Rhodesian athlete Mariette Van Heerden, who was born in that country but grew up in South Africa. She was a Springbok athlete and the holder of the SA records in shotput and discus throw. She later competed in the discus at the 1984 Summer Olympics, representing Zimbabwe.

Kathryn first competed at the FINA World Cup in 2006, and then in the 2007 All-Africa Games.

In 2010 Kathryn also won the Midmar Mile. 

SA’s Meaklim gets world record

MEDALS for South Africa in swimming continued to flow steadily as Kathryn Meaklim raced to her first world record in an amazing race on the final day of the 2009 FINA Arena World Cup in Singapore yesterday....

23/11/2009

MEDALS for South Africa in swimming continued to flow steadily as Kathryn Meaklim raced to her first world record in an amazing race on the final day of the 2009 FINA Arena World Cup in Singapore yesterday.

Meaklim tackled the women’s 400 m individual medley in a positive mood and was on a par with the world record pace until the freestyle, when she accelerated even more to smash the old record by 2,13 sec, clocking an impressive 4:22,88.

“I thought I had a chance in Stockholm and Berlin, but I had a few problems there,” said a beaming Meaklim afterwards. “This is a great feeling with all my teammates behind me here. I could see the scoreboard and it was showing I was under the world record pace, so I just went for it.”

Then, a few races later, a psyched Meaklim took on world record-holder Liesel Jones of Australia in the 200 m breaststroke — and beat her. Meaklim improved almost three seconds on her previous best to touch in 2:20,52.

On Saturday, Meaklim dead-heated for second place in the 800 m freestyle to break her own national record, clocking 8:25,47.

Seven golds for magnificent Meaklim

8 September 2008

Durban-based Olympic swimming star Kathryn Meaklim enhanced her reputation as one of the leading female swimmers on the national aquatics scene by notching up seven gold-medal-winning performances at the four-day Telkom SA Short Course Championships that ended at the Delville Swimming Pool, in Germiston, on Sunday.

Representing Pisces ASC, Meaklim, 19, powered her way to gold in the 200m individual medley in 2min 12.65sec, beating Cape Town Olympic star Jessica Pengelly (2:12.99), before clocking 2:01.56 to take the 200m freestyle title.

Earlier, Meaklim triumphed in the 200m butterfly (2:11.74), 400m individual medley (4:41.53), the 800m freestyle (8:57.63), the 200m breaststroke (2:28.56) and the 400m freestyle (4:12.42). 

Team SA @ the London Olympics: Kathryn Meaklim

17 April 2012

Kathryn Meaklim, a 22-year-old from Kloof, has just qualified for the Olympics after recording A-standard times at the SA Swimming Championships and Olympic Trials in Durban on Monday night.

Q: How long have you been interested in swimming?

A: Since I was very young: 11 or 12 years old. It’s been one of my dreams for a long time. At 13 I went abroad to compete, so for almost nine years now I’ve been competing. You meet so many awesome people and we all love swimming, and travelling.

Q: What events do you compete in?

A: I swim the 200m and 400m individual medley, which is all strokes combined. There’s a qualifying time you have to beat, which I managed last month in the British nationals. I just missed it in the 200m medley, so am a bit unhappy about that.

Q: Why the medley?

A: I chose the medley because I wasn’t particularly brilliant at one stroke! I decided to do the medley because it’s always changing, and I enjoy changing strokes, it’s a lot more interesting than one stroke.

Q: Why did you come to London to train?

A: Mainly for the Olympic Pool. The squad wanted to check it out, and to get used to it and the feel of the pool, the atmosphere. The surroundings are awesome. What did you think of the Olympic park? Obviously the site isn’t finished yet, but the Olympic pool is awesome, and English people love sport so much so the atmosphere is going to be insane. I know all the South Africans are keen to come over here and do our country proud as well. How much training are you doing at the moment? We train anywhere from three to five hours a day, usually for about two and a half hours in the pool, and then an hour and a half of land training a day. My squad don’t train on Sundays. But at the moment we’re preparing for our nationals from 16 to 22 April, and the South African rules state we have to qualify in 400m there. At the end of the day if you don’t do the nationals, you’re not going to the Olympics. You also have to do the qualifying time twice. Do you stick to a special diet? I’m supposed to! With the amount of exercise we do, you can eat quite a lot and not worry about weight. I eat quite a lot, I love food! Some people follow a strict diet, but when you’re training really hard and your body wants something, I think you should give it what it wants. Where are your favourite places for competing? I get to see a lot of places: America and Rio were awesome. Meets in Australia were great because they love swimming so much, so it’s one of my favourite places to compete. What are your plans for the next few months until the Olympics? There are our SA Nationals in April, then Europe for some meets, then the SA team will be based in Monaco until the Olympics. In a few months we’ll be looking to do some sightseeing, all the castles and stuff. I mainly like to shop; we’ve been eyeing up the big shopping centre opposite the Olympic site! Maybe when we get back to London, a bit of shopping will be nice!

Kathryn Meeklim with Amanda Loots

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