By GARY LEMKE in Paris
Tatjana Smith only needs to be on the podium in Thursday night’s women’s 200m breaststroke at the 2024 Paris Games to be officially confirmed as South Africa’s greatest-ever Olympian. However, the chances are that she will win gold.
That will take her overall medals tally to four – three gold and a silver. She would join Chad le Clos on four medals but move ahead of him in terms of weight of medals. She has already won two golds, as have Penny Heyns and Caster Semenya, but three golds would see her stand alone.
Don’t be fooled, or fearful, that Smith was beaten to the wall by Kate Douglass of Team USA in booking her spot in the final, where she also will be joined by Kaylene Corbett, while Pieter Coetze qualified third fastest in the men’s 200m breaststroke.
In fact, it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility to see all three on the podium, after all, Corbett’s 2min 22.87sec leaving her fourth on the timesheets heading into the final.
Smith, who already has the 100m breaststroke gold in her bag, will up her career Games tally to four. Why the statement of fact? Because, barring accidents she will be on the podium and despite the defeat to Douglass, with the American coming from behind to pip her, it was certainly no setback.
Expect Smith to rest up on Wednesday night and be back at the pool meaning business on Thursday. Her Olympic record of 2:18.95 is not safe.
Corbett is a trraining partner of Smith under the guidance of Rocco Meiring – as is Coetze – and the astute Pretoria mentor can be considered the best trainer across any sports trainer in the land. He goes about his business away from the glare of the cameras but you won’t get better than him.
Earlier in the week he will have watched as Smith finished with the perfect final stroke and touch into the wall which earned her 100m gold. That is only possible after countless hours and all the planning, blood, sweat and tears should come together in an emotional medal on Thursday for Smith.
Photo by ANTON GEYSER/Team SA