GOLD STANDARD: Tatjana Smith steps away from swimming as South Africa’s best

Breaststroke sensation Tatjana Smith is at the peak of her powers. She claimed a gold medal in her slightly less-fancied 100m breaststroke as well as silver in the 200m in the same event at the Olympic Games in Paris.

With those achievements, Smith became South Africa’s most decorated Olympic athlete with four medals.

Butterfly champion Chad le Clos also has four Olympic medals, including his iconic gold in the 200m butterfly when he beat swimming icon Michael Phelps in London in 2012 to add to his three silver medals. Smith, though, has a claim to the throne, with one more gold medal than Le Clos.

In Tokyo three years ago she secured gold in the 200m breaststroke and silver in the 100m.

“She is the highest-decorated Olympian of all sports in South Africa,” Penny Heyns said. Heyns is still the only women’s or men’s athlete to do the breaststroke double at the Olympics when she nabbed gold in the 100m and 200m in Atlanta in 1996.

“As far as where she ranks in terms of the greatest swimmers in the country, depends on how you look at it.

“Some might say that Chad le Clos is the most decorated and successful swimmer because he has a lot of World Cup medals and World Short Course medals. But quite honestly, most American, and Australian swimmers don’t swim World Cups and World Shorts, and Tatjana doesn’t compete in Short Course.

“The only thing that really matters for a lot of swimmers is the Olympic events.

“While Chad has one gold and three silvers, I think Tatjana trumps him. I would like to see her break more world records.

“Chad has two Short Course world records, and Tatjana has one Long Course world record that was only recently broken by a Russian swimmer.”

That’s high praise from someone who was long recognised as the country’s best breaststroke swimmer yet.

Such is the dominance of Smith that training partner Kaylene Corbett, who has made the final in the 200m breaststroke at the past two Olympics and on both occasions was seconds away from a podium finish, has never claimed a national swimming title.

And yet, Smith is choosing to retire from the sport.

Early retirement

In most sports, 27 is a ridiculously young age to retire, but in swimming, an athlete’s best years are often behind them after their late twenties.

The athlete who pushed Smith the hardest in the 200m breaststroke in Tokyo was America’s Lilly King, who collected a silver medal after Smith swam a then record time of 2:18.95sec. King, who is also 27, finished last in the 200m breaststroke final this year.

There are exceptions to the rule but it’s not uncommon for swimmers’ times to become a lot slower as they begin to touch 30.

“I’m so grateful that I still get to walk away with a medal,” Smith said at the Paris La Défense Arena after the 200m breaststroke final. “I’m walking away from the Olympics with two medals, I’m a double Olympian so I can’t complain.

“I’m officially done. It’s a relief, but I definitely know probably tomorrow [I’m going] to miss it already.

“It’s been a big part of my life. It’s 22 years that I’ve been swimming and it’s been a big part of my family’s life and everything.”

Tokyo highs

Smith’s memorable record swim in Tokyo in the 200m breaststroke – when she became the first woman to swim under 2:19 – earned her global acclaim – something she wasn’t prepared for and struggled to deal with.

Her parents had also moved back to the Netherlands, where her dad is originally from, which left Smith on her own for the first time.

It was an overwhelming experience for the then 24-year-old as her times in the pool also took a nosedive.

It was only when she met her now husband and manager, Joel Smith – brother-in-law of Springbok captain Siya Kolisi – that things started picking up again.

She married at the end of 2023 and found her identity outside of the pool, which consequently helped her get back to her best inside it.

Read more: Olympic Games Paris 2024

“I have this slogan – I wish I could swim with a cap that says ‘Swimming is just what I do; it’s not who I am’,” Smith told Daily Maverick earlier in 2024. “That’s also why I changed my surname, because I don’t want my identity to lie in swimming,” she said.

While arguments will continue about her place on the echelon of South Africa, for Smith, the records come second to what she’s made people feel.

“Achievements fall away but you want to be remembered for who you are,” she said from Paris. “I hope that I’m remembered for bringing people joy.

“Swimming is really just a part of and a season in your life, there’s so much more than swimming.

“I’m excited to live life.”

Rio scare

That wasn’t the first time Smith had considered stepping away from the pool for good.

In 2016, a then 19-year-old Tatjana Schoenmaker failed to make the Rio Olympics squad after missing out on qualification at the South African nationals for the 200m breaststroke by one-hundredth of a second.

She had swum the qualifying time within the qualifying period but Swimming South Africa rules stipulated at the time – before the Covid-19 pandemic – that qualifying times had to be swum at nationals in order to swim at the Olympics.

She has since said that “everything happens for a reason”, regarding not representing South Africa in Rio.

If that reason is becoming arguably the greatest swimmer South Africa has seen, that is more than valid. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.