Swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker (24) brought home the first silver medal for Team South Africa in the 100m breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday morning.
Schoenmaker hit the wall at 1:05: 22 – which is unfortunately her slowest time at the games – but a win nonetheless. Taking top spot was US teenager Lydia Jacoby who won gold in a time of 1:04.95 and defending champion US Lilly King took third place in 1:05.54.
The last time South Africa won a medal for women’s swimming at the Olympic Games was when Penny Heyns took gold at Sydney in 2000.
Schoenmaker, who is a breaststroke specialist, says its getting tougher and racing back to back is tiring but her intention is to bring hope to South Africa during this difficult time.
“Obviously it was getting tougher each one, and I actually did think I would feel better this morning, but I was a bit tired, so I think the racing back to back and the way it’s laid out is very different, but we’re all experiencing the same so it was … who was the strongest at that moment in time,” she said.
“I really hope this brings a little bit of hope for South Africa, we’re obviously going through a tough time at the moment so if that just shows us there is hope in South Africa. We know that sport unites countries. We’ve seen it with the Rugby World Cup so hopefully the Olympics does the same.”
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