Three Tuks swimmers will participate in the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, at the end of the month.
17-year-old Chanel Veldsman is a breaststroke swimmer who competed in Romania last year at the World Junior Swimming Championships. Leah Markgraaff (17) is a freestyle swimmer; in September, she competed in Argentina at the World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships. Matthew Goller (16) is a freestyle swimmer.
It’s no exaggeration to say Veldsman is excited to participate in the Games.
“I can’t stop thinking about it. My goal is to give my best. It would be very special if I could set personal best times in all three breaststroke events,” said Veldsman, who is the South African junior champion in the breaststroke (50, 100 and 200 metres).
If she swims her best times, Veldsman will likely reach the semi-finals or even a final at the Games. Last year, at the African Youth Games in Angola, she won the 50m breaststroke in 32.90 seconds, the 100m breaststroke in 1:10.99, and the 200m breaststroke in 2:34.48.
What certainly helps a great deal is that, most afternoons at Tuks, she trains in the same lane as Kaylene Corbett (a breaststroke medalist at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games).
“I must say, Kaylene has a way of pushing you when she swims alongside you. I hope to sit down and chat with her sometime. Perhaps she can give me a few tips on what it takes to perform at an international level in swimming.”
Doesn’t it get boring, swimming back and forth for hours on end, afternoon after afternoon?
“No, not at all. When I swim, I feel calm. You could say I clear my head and gain a fresh perspective on things.”
Swimming appears to be the sport the Markgraaff family loves. Her father, Henk, represented South Africa in triathlon as a junior athlete, while her uncle, Ryno, represented South Africa as a swimmer. Her younger brother, Carter (15), competed in the World Junior Swimming Championships in Argentina last year.
This year, at the African Junior Championships, Leah Markgraaff won silver in both the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle events.
Rumour has it that Goller could swim before he could walk, but that doesn’t mean he always loved swimming. Apparently, he hated his learn-to-swim classes at first. However, that changed when he won a freestyle race at a school gala in Grade 1 and begged his parents to register him for more races.
In an interview with ParentingHub, Goller made it clear that he is very serious about not letting the sport define him for the rest of his life. He wants to grow in his sport while also growing as a person – becoming “Matthew who swam, not Matthew the swimmer”.
He won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at this year’s African Junior Swimming Championships and was part of the 4x200m freestyle relay team that won gold at the South African Swimming Championships.
