South Africa’s Olympic record holders

There are currently two South Africans who hold Olympic records: Wayde van Niekerk in the men’s 400m and Tatjana Smith in the women’s 100m and 200m breaststroke.

These records remained unbeaten in the 2024 edition of the Olympic Games in Paris, with van Niekerk setting his in 2016 and Smith both of hers in 2021.

Not only does Smith currently hold two Olympic records, but her performances in the two most recent Games have seen her become the most decorated South African Olympian of all time.

In the buildup to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which was held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Smith broke the South African record for the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:05.89 at a South African Time Trials competition in Stellenbosch in February.

Then, in April, Smith won the 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke events at the South African National Swimming Championships in Gqeberha.

She broke the South African record in all three events. This saw her enter the Olympic Games as the number one seed and favourite to win the 200m breaststroke.

In the preliminary heats of the 200m event, Smith set a new Olympic record with a time of 2:19.16, which was less than a tenth of a second slower than the world record.

She ranked first in the semi-finals and advanced to the finals of the event, where she won first place and set a new world and Olympic record of 2:18.95, becoming the first South African to win gold at the 2020 tournament.

The world record has since been broken, but her Olympic record remains unbeaten.

Smith saw similar success in the 100m breaststroke, ranking first in the prelims and advancing to the semi-finals, where she set a new Olympic record with a time of 1:04.93.

Despite her sterling performance in the semis, Smith won a silver medal in the final with a time of 1:05.22.

While she didn’t break any more records at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, her gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke and silver in the 200m event saw her become the most decorated South African Olympian of all time.

Her two silvers and two golds surpassed Chad le Clos’s three silvers and one gold.

Smith retired shortly after the event at the age of 27, saying that she looked forward to a break from swimming.

“It’s so hard as a swimmer to actually swim for fun. I don’t know why. If there’s like a pool party or something, no one wants to swim,” she told reporters.

“I’m probably going to miss it. It’s been 22 years that I’ve been swimming, and it’s been a big part of my family’s life and everything,” she later added.

Wayde van Niekerk

Van Niekerk began his path to glory in 2015 when he beat his South African record for the men’s 400m event to below 44 seconds at a track and field meet in France.

A week later, he won a 200m race in Germany in under 20 seconds, making him only the second man in history to have run the 200m in under 20 seconds and the 400m in under 44 seconds.

He bettered this record the following year when he broke the 10-second barrier for a 100m race.

This made him the first person in history to have run the 100m in under 10 seconds, the 200m in under 20 seconds, and the 400m in under 44 seconds.

However, his world firsts were not done in 2016.

After making it to the final of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games 400m event, he was placed in lane eight, considered a difficult lane to perform well in due to the staggered start.

Despite this, not only did he manage to become the first man to win the Olympic or world 400m event from lane eight, but he also broke the world record with a time of 43.03 seconds.

This remains the world record time for the men’s 400m event.