Jean Basson

Jean was born on the 5th October 1987 in Johannesburg where he attended St. Stithians Boys College and swam under coach Peter Williams at the Waterborn Swimming Club. At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Jean was a member of the South African relay team that won a silver in the medley relay and a bronze in the 800 freestyle relay. Jean split 47,65 in the medley relay and posted the fasted South African team time in the 800 freestyle relay with a 1:47.82. In the 200m freestyle, he finished 4th, 0,2 behind third place and 0,6 behind the winner.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing Jean again finished 4th in the 200m freestyle. His time of 1:45,97 while American Peter Vanderkaay touched in 1:45,14. Michael Phelps won the race in a WR time of 1:42,96. In the London Olympic Games in 20212, Jean returned a 1:47,89 in the 800 freestyle relay - all, four other South African swimmers finished in 1:47.

He was a six-time South African Junior Champion in 2001 and 2002, and at the 2005 Senior Nationals, he was the South African champion in the 200-meter freestyle and finished third in the 400-meter freestyle. In 2006, defended his title as the 200-meter freestyle champion and placed third in the 100-meter freestyle.

In 2006 Jean won a scholarship to the University of Arizona, where all of the four heroes from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games 400 freestyle relay had been based.  From 2006 - 2010 he picked up an astonishing 15 All-America honours, a pair of Pac-10 Conference championships in the 500-meter free event, and earned both individual and team NCAA Championships. In 2020 he was inducted into the Arizona Hall of Fame. 

Arguably, Jean's best achievement was at the 2009 NCAA  championships where he won the 500-yard freestyle. He also took 4th place in the 200.

A  list of his best times can be found here.

Basson takes the baton

15 August, 2008

When Roland Schoeman touched the wall after the 50m freestyle at the Athens Olympics four years ago, he held three fingers up, with his thumb and index finger in the shape of a “C”.

It wasn’t because he’d just won his third medal of the Games, though. While it was a sign probably unfamiliar to most South Africans, American college swimmers easily recognised it as the WC of the Arizona Wildcats.

Four years on, South Africa may not be experiencing quite the same level of success in the pool, but there’s another South African Wildcat, who four years from now may just be causing the same sort of waves his teammate did in Athens.

He’s only 20 years old, but Jean Basson has shown clear signs of greater things to come, finishing just outside of the medals at his first Olympic Games.

Johannesburg-born Basson powered his way through the heats and semifinals of the 200m freestyle to make it to his biggest race to date, lining up in the final next to the likes of Michael Phelps and Peter Vanderkaay.

And although many of his teammates have failed to produce the goods in the morning swims when it really counted, the former St Stithians star kept his cool to finish in fourth place in 1:45,97.

It’s said that fourth is the worst spot to finish at an Olympics, just missing out on a podium spot, but there was no sign of disappointment for Basson, who knows he’ll have another chance.

“That was a lot of fun,” he beamed after the race. “Going into the final, I really just wanted to savour the moment and enjoy it and I definitely did that. I’m happy with the outcome. I gave it my all. I didn’t have anything left in the tank at the end so I’m happy that I gave it my best shot,” he added.

Basson said he was unaware of where exactly Phelps, who went on to shatter yet another world record in the race, was in the pool, as he simply tried to stick with Vanderkaay, whom he knew would be in the medals.

“It’s cool for me to see that in my first major international final, at the Olympics, I came fourth. It gives me a lot of motivation to go back to Arizona and train harder and improve on things like my starts and my turns and the next time hopefully I can grab a medal,” he said.

While Basson would be the first to give plenty of credit to his previous coach in South Africa, former Olympian Peter Williams, he points to the training environment in Arizona as a massive boost to his training. In Tucson, he trains alongside the likes of Schoeman as well as Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and a host of international stars from around the world.

In fact, the University of Arizona has 25 athletes competing at these Games in Beijing. They have had at least one athlete at every Olympics since 1960 and have notched up a collection of 62 Olympic medals over the years, 32 of them gold. (Another teammate, Ryk Neethling, has the distinction of being one of just three Wildcats to have competed at four Olympics.)

It’s little wonder Basson is inspired every time he goes to training. “We have an amazing training environment, starting with the coaches we have there. Their whole goal in life is just to make us better in the pool and make us better people overall,” he explained.

“And just from that, there’s developed an amazing tradition of people that go there and amazing people you train with and race against every day.”

With this kind of environment available, it seems a pity that the powers that be in South African swimming have sometimes made life difficult for United States-based swimmers, particularly when it is so evident that this is where most of the country’s swimming success stories have been bred over the years.

Athens was a testament to that and it seems Beijing will be too.

And once it’s time for the Schoemans and Neethlings of the world to hand over the baton to their younger counterparts, Basson has proved he is ready and more than capable of carrying on the Wildcat tradition.