If they were trapeze artists they’d probably be known as the Flying Vynckes.
But siblings Danika, Ivana and Giuliana are way more like flying fish, all aquatic stars in their own rights.
The oldest of the teenaged trio, swimmer Danika Vyncke, 17, is on the brink of representing Team SA at the Paralympics in Paris, France later in August.
She and younger sister Ivana, 16, both have a visual condition known as Stargardt Disease which affects the central vision of humans.
Youngest sister, Giuliana, 14 hasn’t inherited the condition and is classified an able-bodied swimmer while the two older sisters are in the S13 (visually impaired) Paralympic class.
Born in Pretoria, just like her mom, Monica, Danika has spent the bulk of her young life in the KwaZulu-Natal town of Vryheid, where her dad, Julien, was also raised and the family have a farm there.
“My dad was a very good swimmer himself and I think he just missed Commonwealth Games by 100th of a second in his day,” she says.
Her dad swam in the same era as former national coach Graham Hill, who used to coach the Vyncke trio.
“We started with a local coach in Vryheid and then my dad got in touch with Graham and we’d go and spend time in Durban with him every month.”
At the same time, her dad was also proactive, building a 25-metre pool on the farm for his girls to train in.
“I absolutely love life on the farm,” says Danika. “I love training in the peaceful surroundings and I also like to do some trail-running but obviously not too close to competitions in case I fall and injure myself.”
The main products on the farm are timber and pecan nuts and nutty as it may seem, her spoken language at home is German and English and Afrikaans are only alternative languages — though one would never guess it!
“But then Graham [Hill] relocated to New Zealand so I didn’t have a coach and that was a really low point for me as I really loved training with him.”
It wasn’t long after that Danika swam her first international meeting (for classification) in Limoge, France. And, for every low there’s an equivalent high, and that’s where she met current coach Theo Verster, yet another former international swimmer.
“So he’d send us programmes and we’d go and spend time in Joburg for stroke correction and so on for a few days at a time every month or so.”
It was in Limoge that Danika had been hoping to qualify for world championships.
“But then I got a direct qualification for world champs and with Theo I made the qualifying time for Paralympics and I didn’t even think I’d set that as a goal, then my world rankings started dropping while training with Theo so I got a slot in Paris.”
At the Games in Paris she’ll be lining up to swim the 100m breaststroke and 400m freestyle.
Pragmatist
And even at 17, when it comes to expectations in the pool, she’s more the pragmatist than the perfectionist in Paris.
“I’m hoping to make a final... but if I don’t it’s really not the end of the world... I just want to go and enjoy it right now, because after all, I’m just 17 and these are my first games.”
Post Paralympics and school life and it’s a numbers game for the bubbly teenager.
“My parents own quite a few businesses which keeps them very busy so I’d like to get involved in that side of things. I originally wanted to do chartered accountancy because I love number-crunching but at this stage I think I’m leaning into something like industrial psychology maybe?”
The more one listens to the youngster the more one realises that whatever she applies her mind to, she’ll be like a fish in water.
When Verster, who leads his own Dragons Swimming Club in Johannesburg, talks about the swimming Vynckes, a person hears the admiration ratchet up.
“So, I inherited the three siblings from Graham and I see them for about 10 days every month in Johannesburg were I can do some proper work with them. I took over in about May 2022 and they’ve been just fantastic.
“I write them programmes and they give me full-on times so I can monitor them properly.”
He says Giuliana, unhindered by any visual impairment, has already swum her way to numerous gold medals at national short-course championships, “she’s a real pocket-rocket”.
Ivana got classified in Egypt last and then another moment of huge pride came when she and Danika got to compete at the European Open Championships.
Again, the pride wells up in Verster’s voice. “It only gets opened up every four years, in a Paralympic cycle — we were the first SA team to go to a European Open Championship and the two sibling sisters competed side by side.”
There was also some history made on local soil at the Central Gauteng championships.
“It was the first time we got a medal in an able-bodied race, the three sisters and one of my club swimmers at Dragons formed a fully integrated medal-winning team.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.