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....

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

2013 FINA World SC Championship medal winner

Giulio was born on January 3, 1989 in Johannesburg.  He matriculated from Pretoria Boys High and studied civil engineering at the University of Pretoria. Both Giulio and Cameron swam under German coach Dirk Lange before he returned to Germany.

Gil Levy, occasional coach of the two swimmers at the time, confides: “They were constantly together, clowning around, enjoying life, seizing the smallest opportunities while working hard, very hard. They won everything! ".

Then they trained with coach Grant Kritzinger at the Northern Tigers Club and  Head Coach Igor Omeltchenko at the TUKS Swimming Club at the University of Pretoria. 

At the 2013 FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, he won the bronze medal, swimming in lane 8 The race was won by his training partner Cameron van der Burgh, who finished in 26,77, just 0,01 seconds ahead of Australian Christian Sprenger in 26,78. Giulio was third in 27,04. The 4th-placed swimmer Damir Dugonjic was also 0,01 seconds behind Giulio! Cameron held the world record of 25,25 since 2009.

Giulio swam in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 editions of the Raia Rapida in Rio de Janeiro.

At the world student games - the Universiade - of 2013, held in Kazan, he won the 50m breaststroke, winning the only medal for South Africa. His time was 27,44.

In 2016 Giulio finished 5th in the 50m breaststroke at the FINA World Championships in Canada, where his time was a personal best time of 26,08.

He retired after this event. Today he works as a civil engineer in Pretoria. 

Training partners and best friends, Giulio Zorzi and Cameron Van Der Burgh

by Tony Carroll 

July 31st, 2013

https://swimswam.com/africa-report-day-4-continued-cameron-van-der-burgh-and-giulio-zorzi-the-ricky-bobby-and-cal-naughton-jr-of-breaststroke/ 

Cameron Van Der Burgh won the 50m breaststroke, earning his first Gold Medal of the Championships. That alone would have made it a great day for the South African’s, but Giulio Zorzi, Van Der Burgh’s South African teammate, touched third, earning the Bronze medal. It is great to see two teammates finish on the podium. Several other countries have seen both of their swimmers finish in the top 3, but this is the first of the Championships for South Africa. What makes this even more special is the Cameron and Giulio have been training partners for years.

We were able to talk with a few of their coaches who were able to share a lot about their journey.

“Cameron and Giulio how should I say it: the Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jr. of World Breaststroke swimming.  You will see #shakeandbake everywhere on our tweets. Why? Because they are a team, inseparable like “brothers”, they are together all the time 24/7and drive and push each other to unstoppable standards. Everything they do ends up being a competition, even measuring their fat percentages lol; but man do they have fun, from ragging on Lehesta every day to playing practical jokes or continually playing soccer as a form of “stretching”. These guys just love and enjoy what they do. We have really just allowed them at Players to be given the freedom to express their swimming - like artwork.” – Grant Kritzinger, Players Swim.

Van Der Burgh and Zorzi have trained together since they were young. Grant Kritzinger told us that Van Der Burgh once referred to Zorzi as his “Seabiscuit and protégé.” Although we have seen a lot of success from Van Der Burgh, Zorzi made it very clear that he is not anybody's “Seabiscuit.”

“Giulio Zorzi after tonight isn’t the next Cameron Van Der Burgh, he is the next Giulio Zorzi, this kid will be phenomenal in years to come.” – Grant Kritzinger, Players Swim.

Cameron Van Der Burgh and Giulio Zorzi have swam together since they were young and are best friends. You could see how important that friendship was to both of them during the medal presentation, when Van Der Burgh pulled his teammate and best friend, Zorzi, to the top of the podium for the singing of their National Anthem. They stood there, arms around each other, watching the South African flag as it was raised up.

Cameron progressed to training with Dirk Lange who had become SA Head Coach and dragged Giulio with him to go and train there too.

GIl Levy wrote: While I never coached Giulio, I had the privilege of watching him grow up at Pretoria Boys High School which we both attended and I returned to – to teach English and Phys Ed. there. The two of them are inseparable, constantly clowning around with a lust for life and a zest for the opportunities they work & train so hard for – to their fullest.”

Their friendship and support has benefitted them in and out of the pool. It is great to see two best friends pushing each other to be the best they can be, supporting each others goals, and accomplishing them together.

Thank you to Gil Levy, Grant Kritzinger, Cameron Van Der Burgh, and Giulio Zorzi for contributing to these articles.