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....
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
