2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
- Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
- La Défense Arena — Paris, France
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- Full Swimming Schedule
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Pick ’em Contest
- How To Watch
- Entry Lists
- Live Results
- Prelims Live Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5
- Finals Live Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5
WOMEN’S 200 BREASTSTROKE – SEMIFINALS
- World Record: 2:17.55 – Evgeniia Chikunova, RUS (2023)
- World Junior Record: 2:19.64 – Viktoriya Gunes, TUR (2015)
- Olympic Record: 2:18.95 – Tatjana Smith, RSA (2021)
- 2021 Winning Time: 2:18.95 – Tatjana Smith, RSA
- 2021 Time to Advance to Finals: 2:23.73
- Kate Douglass (United States) – 2:19.74
- Tatjana Smith (South Africa) – 2:19.94
- Tes Schouten (Netherlands) – 2:22.74
- Kaylene Corbett (South Africa) – 2:22.87
- Ye Shiwen (China) – 2:23.13
- Lilly King (United States) – 2:23.25
- Kotryna Teterevkova (Lithuania) – 2:23.42
- Satomi Suzuki (Japan) – 2:23.54
When one thinks of South African Breaststrokers, Tatjana Schoenmaker, now Tatjana Smith, immediately jumps to mind. However, she is just one of a long line of breaststroking excellence in the nation’s history as both Penelope Heyns and Cameron van der Burgh have also claimed Olympic golds.
If one were to think of only present-day breaststrokers, then Smith may be the only swimmer that comes to mind, but behind her, there have been two swimmers on the opposite ends of the sprint-distance spectrum who have helped raise the profile of South African Swimming across the World: Lara Van Nierkerk and Kaylene Corbett.
Van Niekerk, a 2022 Worlds bronze medalist in the 50 breast and a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist, wasn’t on the roster for Paris due to ‘circumstances beyond her control.’
Van Niekerk posted on Instagram, “It breaks my heart to be missing out on the Paris Olympic Games as 2024 was the Olympics I have worked for since being a little girl.
“I qualified on 2 different occasions but due to circumstances beyond my control the times did not count. The Olympic dream is not over, it simply got delayed. Good luck to everyone competing, I wish I could be there in person but I will be watching and cheering from home. I will be back. Jeremiah 29:11”
Corbett, on the other hand, is more orientated towards the 200, and while she may have fewer medals than Van Niekerk, she certainly has a strong resume. The South African swam at both the 2017 and 2019 Worlds, improving from 23rd in the 200 breast to making her first individual final in 2019, placing 8th in 2:26.62.
Seeded just 18th in Tokyo, the then 22-year-old surprised everyone by qualifying for the semifinals in 4th place and then making the finals in 4th place as well. While she finished 5th in the finals, she dropped time from every round, swimming 2:22.48 in prelims, 2:22.08 in the semis, and 2:22.06 in the finals.
At these Games, she entered as the 12th seed with an entry time of 2:22.99, from her silver medal performance at the Univeristy Games last September. In the heats, she swam 2:23.85 to qualify in 6th and tonight safely advanced to the finals, placing 2nd in her semifinal in a time of 2:22.87 and 4th fastest overall.
Just .13 back of Tes Schouten‘s 3rd place time from the Semifinals, this may be Corbett’s time to shine. Her training partner and 2020 Olympic Champion Smith will be right next to her in lane 5, and the pair would like to see nothing more than both of them on the podium tomorrow. Should Corbett walk away with the medal, she would be the first South African woman not named Smith/Schoenmaker to win one since Penelope Heyns in 2000.
Other Continental News
- South Africa’s Pieter Coezte qualified for his 2nd final of the Games. He placed 3rd in the semifinals of the 200 back and after breaking the Continental record in the 100 will be looking to chase down the mark of 1:55.75 set back in 2009.
Continental/National Records
- African Record
- M. 100 Back: Pieter Coetze (RSA) – 52.58
- Benin
- M. 100 Back: Alexis Kpadi – 57.61
- South Africa
- M. 1oo Back: Pieter Coetze – 52.58
- Sudan
- W. 100 Free: Rana Saadeldin – 1:04.72
- Uganda
- W. 100 Free: Gloria Muzito – 55.95
Medal Summary
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
| South Africa | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |