Tatjana Smith is SA’s greatest Olympian, says icon Penny Heyns

• South African swimming legend Penny Heyns has backed golden girl Tatjana Smith to do the 100m and 200m breaststroke double and become the second swimmer to achieve the feat at an Olympic Games.
• Heyns is the only other athlete in the history of the Olympics to do the 100m and 200m breaststroke double when she obliterated the field at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
• Smith together with her compatriot Kaylene Corbett will compete in the 200m breaststroke final tonight. The race will be shown live on Showmax at 21:11.

South African swimming legend hailed Tatjana Smith as the greatest Olympian the country has ever produced.

Heyns, the iconic double gold medallist, has been left in awe by Smith’s performances in the pool at the Paris Games. “As far as South Africa is concerned, Tatjana has surpassed me in the Olympic sense,” Heyns told Showmax. “I had two golds and a bronze, and she has two golds and a silver, and will most likely get another medal tonight. It’s just a matter of what colour she gets.”

On Monday night, Smith had to come from behind to win the 100m breaststroke final after China’s Tang Qianting threw down the gauntlet with a blistering first 50m in the pool. Heyns says while she was confident that Smith would get a podium finish, even she was left surprised by the SA swimmer’s push at the end of the 100m race to grab gold.

“I was confident that Tatjana was going to get on the podium for the 100m breaststroke, but I didn’t know where she would finish as she was ranked fifth and there were two swimmers in that race that have gone faster than her, but I knew Tatjana is a fighter.

“When I saw her in the heats and in the semifinals, I thought that she would easily be in front of them for the whole way in the race, so Monday night was a little bit of a nail biter. But, in terms of being confident of her grabbing gold, that confidence was more in the 200m breaststroke.”

Heyns has now backed Smith to do the 100m and 200m breaststroke double and become the second swimmer to achieve the feat at an Olympic Games. Heyns is the only other athlete in the history of the Olympics to do the 100m and 200m breaststroke double when she absolutely obliterated the field at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Smith will swim at the 200m breaststroke finals tonight together with her compatriot Kaylene Corbett, and the race will be shown live on Showmax.

“She is the highest decorated Olympian of all sports in South Africa. As far as where does she rank 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.”

Heyns has hailed Smith as an exceptional swimmer.

“I think Tatjana’s talent is exceptional. I remember seeing her around 2013, when she was much younger at the Africa Junior Champs. I saw this young girl swimming so fast. Her strike was a little choppy to be honest.

“But the more I saw her stroke the more I thought it was very clever way to swim and I think that comes naturally to her. I don’t think anyone has taught her this way.
“Mentally she is also very focused. I think her faith has a large part to do with that and she’s able to kind of see swimming as something she does, not something that defines her.”

Heyns is thrilled that Smith is the swimmer to have taken the baton from her. “I’m delighted that Tatjana is the one that won the first gold as a female in our country after my 1996 swims. I’m glad she is the one that has taken the baton and is the golden girl. And especially since it’s in the breaststroke, it means a lot to me, as it is the event that I swam in.

“Tatjana is an exceptional talent and puts it together when it really counts. Mentally she’s tough and she’s right up there with the best in the world right now. In her generation, she’s the best breaststroker. Having said that, there are other breaststrokers who hold the records, so it depends how you measure it.”

Heyns has also predicted that Smith will announce her retirement after the Paris Games. “Given that she’s 27 and recently got married, I suspect that this will be the last time she competes at this level. I wouldn’t be surprised if she announces her retirement after this, but you never know.”

Heyns has also been impressed by South Africa’s other swimmers in Paris and is excited to see Le Clos compete at the games.

“Of course I am excited to see Chad swim, and to see how well he would do. It’s difficult to tell, as he’ll be swimming against a couple of really fast 100m butterfly swimmers, who have swum faster than he has ever swum, so Chad’s going to have to swim a personal best time if he wants to go through to the final and stand a chance of a podium finish.”

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