Swimming History in South Africa

• The first swimmer to represent South Africa at an Olympic Games was G.A. Godfrey at the 1912 Games in Stockholm. 
• Swimmers represented South Africa again in 1920 and at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam the Ladies 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Team won the Bronze medal. 
• In 1930 the first Empire Games were held in Hamilton, Canada and Onagh Whitsett of South Africa won the Gold Medal in the Ladies Springboard Diving. 
• In 1932 at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles Jennie Maakal won the bronze Medal in the Ladies 400m Freestyle.
• South Africa was represented at the 1934 Empire Games in London, the 1938 Empire Games in Sydney, the 1948 Olympic Games in London. 
• At the Empire Games in Auckland in 1950, gold medals were won by Graham Johnston (Men’s 1650 yards Freestyle); Jacobus Wiid (Men’s 110 yards Backstroke) and Joan Harrison (Ladies 440 yards Freestyle and Bronze in the ladies 110 yards Backstroke).
• At the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki Joan Harrison won the Gold medal in the Ladies 100m Backstroke. 
• Again, Gold medals were won at the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver by Graham Johnston, men’s 1650 yardss Freestyle, Joan Harrison, ladies 110 yards Backstroke and the South African Ladies 4 x 110 yards Freestyle Relay team.
• At the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne the Ladies Relay team took the bronze medal in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay. 
• In 1965 Karen Muir became the youngest person in the world to break a World record in any sport and that record still stands today. At the British Championships in Blackpool, she broke the World Record for the Women’s 110 yds Backstroke at the age of 12 and between 1965 and 1970 she went on to break 15 World Records in the 110 and 220 yards backstroke as well as the 100m and 200m backstroke.
• The 1960 Olympic Games in Rome was the last Games that South Africans competed in until 1992 when they were readmitted and competed in the Games in Barcelona.
• South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth in 1994 and took part in the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada in 1994. Swimming TodayIn 1995 South Africa competed in the All Africa Games for the first time and South African swimmers won a total of 26 Gold 22 Silver medals and 6 Bronze medals and broke 6 South African & African Records.

Penny Heyns

Penny Heyns is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s favourite daughters and arguably the greatest female breaststroke swimmer of all time.

• In March 1996 Penny Heyns broke the World Record for the ladies 100m Breaststroke at the SA National Championships in Durban.
• At the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Penny Heyns again broke the World Record in the women’s 100m Breaststroke and won the Gold Medal in both the women’s 100m and 200m breaststroke. In doing so she also broke the Olympic Record in the Women’s 100m and 200m Freestyle.
• During the Goodwill Games held in New York in July 1998 Penny Heyns stormed into new world records by becoming the first World Record holder in the 50m Breaststroke in a time of 30.95. Previously this distance had not been recognised by FINA for official World Records only previous best times were recorded.
• As if that was not enough Penny went on to break even more world records including the ones she had set. At some point she broke 8 New World Records in 11 consecutive swims.

Roland Schoeman

Also at the Goodwill Games meet in the same year Roland Schoeman won the Gold Medal in the 50m Freestyle in a time of 22.04 seconds. This was the fastest recorded time since the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and the 4th fastest time ever recorded. This time shot Roland from 25th to No.1 in the World Rankings in the 50m Freestyle.

Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling won the 4X100m free style relay swimming gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games, silver medal at the same event, gold and silver medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, gold and silver medals at the All African Swimming Championships in 1998.

Ryk Neethling

One of South Africa’s most celebrated sportsmen, Ryk Neethling has participated in not one but three Olympic Games on behalf of his country. As a result, Neethling came back from the 2004 Olympics in Athens with a Gold Medal for South Africa! This uber-athlete holds a number of international and local records – and has become a media darling for his humble attitude and incredible prowess in the water.

Open Water Swimming in South Africa

Open water swimming, popularly known as distance swimming is surely not for the faint-hearted but even as far back as many generations ago south Africa could hold its own on the world’s list of brave-hearts.

Distance swimming has a long history in South Africa with the first recorded swim in 1899 when Henry Chateries Hooper swam from Robben Island to the old Cape Town harbour. Since than more than 150 people have done the crossing from Robben Island and various other distance swims in South Africa. Any swim over seven kilometres long is considered a long distance swim and this is the general criteria when recording long distance swims.

Links:

• www.openswim.co.za
• www.swimsa.co.za