OPINION: SA swimmers showing promise ahead of 2028 Olympic Games
· Citizen
The current generation of South African swimmers are incredible.
Over the first seven days of competition at the Commonwealth Games, the SA team relied entirely on swimmers to keep the medal tally rolling, and they couldn’t have achieved more than they did.
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The swimmers combined well throughout the week-long gala which concluded on Wednesday, feeding off each other’s success and producing a historic overall performance.
They raked in a total of 22 medals (six gold, eight silver and eight bronze), led by Pieter Coetzé (six medals), Erin Gallagher (five medals), Aimee Canny (five medals) and Ruard van Renen (four medals) who all performed consistently well in both individual and relay events.
Record medal haul
While the swimming team have always played a key role for the national squad at the quadrennial Games, they have never produced the remarkable string of results we saw in Glasgow.
Their 22-medal haul is the highest achieved by South Africa in any sport in the history of the Commonwealth showpiece, surpassing the previous record of 16 podium places achieved by the national swimming squad in Delhi in 2010.
Perhaps most promising is the depth and versatility they displayed in what was a real team effort. Among the 25 swimmers in the squad (in able-bodied and para events) 11 of them reached the podium in individual events, and five medals were achieved in relay events.
And four of the five swimmers who earned multiple medals in individual events – Coetzé, Canny, Van Renen and Nathan Hendricks – are under the age of 23.
Los Angeles Olympics
Looking ahead to the 2028 Olympic Games (as well as the Paralympics) in Los Angeles, the squad will need to take a big step up if they hope to convert Commonwealth medals into Olympic medals.
The standard at the Olympics is far higher and if they are going to secure multiple podium places in LA, they will need to gain further momentum over the next couple of years.
However, despite Tatjana Smith having retired in 2024 and fellow four-time Olympic medallist Chad le Clos now in the latter stages of his lengthy career, it seems clear that the sport is in a good space with some younger swimmers making waves.
Coetzé in particular looks set to challenge for Olympic titles, and if his compatriots continue building on the form they showed in Glasgow, he might not be alone.