Our swimming potential is getting back to form

No South African swimming enthusiast will forget the golden Penny era, or the 4 x 100m dream team of Athens, taking it to the best in the world and winning gold for this prestigious event. With high hopes and expectations placed on the shoulders of the SA Olympic Swimming team in Beijing in 2008, we waited with baited breath to see if the team could live up to the greatness achieved in Athens and before…

We all know the outcome of Beijing and I’m not going to dwell on this. However, the recent FINA World Championships held in Rome surely proved that we are not one hit wonders, and that our golden swimming days are far from over. Our Golden Boy of Rome, Cameron van der Burgh, was back in the water at the Telkom SA Short Course Championships at the GC Jolife swimming pool in Pietermaritzburg, proving once again why he is the quickest breaststroke swimmer in the world. Keeping his fine form and momentum from Rome, he has certainly brought Sleepy Hollow to life with his explosive performance. Van der Burgh smashed his own world mark of 25.94 with an effort of 25.43, claiming the gold.  Not stopping there, he returned to the pool and bettered his 100m breaststroke world record of 56.88 to a scintillatingly quick 56.39.

Part of the Athens dream team and a legend in South African swimming, Roland Schoeman had a quiet time in Rome by his own high standards. True to the sportsman that he is, he bounced back to swim a 20.30 in the 50m freestyle – faster than the world mark of 20.48. This was his 10th world record of his swimming career – a feat that shows the ability and conviction of this great swimmer. Other notable swims came from a mixture of the experienced and the new kids on the block, with Lyndon Ferns (Athens dream team) clocking a new African record of 50.53 in the 100m butterfly and Garth Tune also setting a new African record in the 50m backstroke with a time of 24.29.

Although the big guns of USA, China and Europe dominated the medals table in Rome, it was encouraging to see the depth in the SA squad that had been sent to the World Championships. There was a good mix of tried and tested experience and new swimmers coming through and getting the opportunity and much needed experience to compete at the highest level. Beijing certainly showed the weaknesses in the formidable SA swimming attack, but these lessons seem to have been well learned. A new national coach, a new players’ academy under the guidance of Ryk Neethling and the key lessons that our offshore swimmers are bringing in from the collegiate system in the USA, seem to be contributing factors to the rise of the SA swimming giant.

The recent performance in Rome and back home is testament to the work that a lot dedicated swimmers, administrators, coaches and sponsors are putting into growing the sport of swimming in South Africa. The next real test for our swimmers will be in October at the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup Short Course competition that will take place in Durban. Let’s back our team and give them the support they deserve as we look forward to an even greater medal haul and the possibility of more world records.

Yours in sport
B