If everything goes according to plan, Tatjana Smith will have a real chance on Monday evening to win South Africa’s first medal at the Paris Olympic Games, competing in the 100m-breaststroke final.
The statistics certainly favour Smith to be a medal contender. This season, she set the third-fastest time swimming 1:05.41 in April during the national championships in Gqeberha. The Tuks swimmer won silver during the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The favourite to win the 100m breaststroke must undoubtedly be China’s Quanting Tang, who swam 1:04.39 during their national championships. Tang has swum four of the fastest times this season in the event. Smith has two of the fastest times to her name.
Speculating what could happen four days before any event is risky as everyone knows nothing is ever done deal in sports until that last second of a race or game.
In a video interview sent out by Sascoc, Smith said, “I think the 100 is always nice to have as a pre-race for the 200. Sometimes, I start enjoying it too much, and then I get nervous about whether I will survive in the 200. But it is always good to see where I am and have that easy speed, in the beginning, to know for the 200.
“I got to tell myself daily that I am not swimming for other’s expectations. But then again, my own expectations are often higher. It is about trusting in God and knowing that his plan will ultimately work out. What happens on race day happens. As I have said in Tokyo, someone else could have been the champion if we had raced the day later.”
If the Tuks swimmer should medal in the 100m breaststroke, she will be the second South African female athlete to win three medals at the Olympics. Penny Heyns won gold and silver in the 100m and 200m breaststroke during the 1996 Atlanta Games and bronze in the 100m breaststroke in 2000 in Sydney. Smith won gold and silver in Tokyo.
At the risk of getting ahead of oneself, it is worth mentioning that if Smith went on to win the 200m breaststroke as well, she would become South Africa’s most successful female Olympian. Caster Semenya is the only female to have won two gold medals in the same event. She won the 800 metres at the 2012 and 2016 Games.
It is interesting to note that since the 1904 Olympic Games, South Africa has won 89 medals. Twenty of those medals are due to the heroics of our female athletes.
The first time South Africa’s females medalled was in 1928. The 4x100m freestyle team took bronze. Marjorie Clarke was the first female athlete to win an individual medal when she won bronze in the 80m hurdles in 1932. Esther Brand and Joan Harrison were the first two to win gold. They did so in 1952. Brand won the high jump, while Harrison was victorious in the 100m backstroke.
Apart from Heyns, Semenya and Smith, Hestrie Cloete is the only other athlete to have won more than one Olympic medal. She finished second in the high jump in 2000 and 2004. So far, South Africa’s females have won 15 individual medals.