Tatjana Smith has spearheaded a revolution of women’s swimming in SA, underlining her class with magnificent swims in her three breaststroke events at the national championships in Gqeberha that ended on Saturday.
Not a single woman qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics, with the Tuks swimmer missing out on a spot in the 200m breaststroke by one-hundredth of a second, but eight years later Smith is one of six women to have delivered qualifying times for Paris 2024.
That’s double the three men who have done the same during the Games qualifying window that started on March 1 2023.
At the national champs, Smith and three other women dished out qualifying times compared to only one man, her teammate at Tuks, and himself a rising superstar, Pieter Coetzé.
The only first-time qualifier was Aimee Canny, who went to Tokyo 2020 only as a relay swimmer, having not qualified in her own right then.
The US-based student narrowly missed the qualifying standard in her 200m freestyle race last week, but then clocked it in style on the first leg of the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, breaking Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry’s 2008 African record as she touched in 1 min 56.80 sec, which elevated her to joint 12th in the world so far this year.
Erin Gallagher and Kaylene Corbett also repeated qualifying times earlier in the window, but Smith remained the star of the show. Eight years ago, when she was one of the few ladies on the national swimming radar, she insisted women were working hard to become world-class and she was spot on, leading from the front.
Her 2 min 19.01 sec 200m breaststroke time placed her at the top of the world rankings, and with reports that Russian Evgeniia Chikunova, owner of the 2:17.55 world record, is refusing to compete under a neutral flag, Smith’s chances of retaining her 200m gold are looking decent.
No SA Olympic champion has returned to the top of a podium in real time.
Smith’s 1:05.64 in the 100m was the second-fastest time in the world to date.
Her swims came after a doctor had suggested she not swim because of a groin injury, and even after deciding she would only swim the heats, Smith still couldn’t stop herself from delivering her best.
Coetzé, 19, did brilliantly and left Gqeberha fourth in the 100m and 200m backstroke. If he can continue improving before the Paris showpiece kicks off on July 27, he could have a shot in both events.
SA swimming has never won more than three medals at a single Games, though they’ve achieved that on four occasions, at Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004, London 2012 and Rio 2016.
But SA might have a fighting chance to get to four if the stars align perfectly over the French capital.
Not reproducing qualifying times during the national championships were veteran Chad le Clos, Matthew Sates and double Commonwealth Games champion Lara van Niekerk, none of whom were in their best form.
Rebecca Meder didn’t race at full pace because she was still recovering from surgery four weeks earlier, having had a burst appendix removed.
Up until 2016, selection criteria required swimmers to achieve qualifying times during the national championships, but that was relaxed for Tokyo because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
That window period closes on June 23, but it is hard to see too many others making the team, apart from Caitlin de Lange who is close in the women’s 50m freestyle.
For Tokyo the women outnumbered the men for the first time since 1996 and in Paris they’ll entrench their dominance with Smith leading the charge.
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