By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
See all of our 2025 Swammy Awards here.
For the eighth straight year, South African coach Rocco Meiring walks away as our African Coach of the Year after another impressive showing in 2025.
Despite Meiring saying goodbye to his star pupil, two-time Olympic champion Tatjana Smith, who retired after the Paris Olympics, he was still responsible for the only two African-based swimmers who won medals at the 2025 World Championships.
Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi won two world titles in Singapore, but trains in Europe under coach Philippe Lucas.
Following Smith’s retirement, the top South African swimmer in 2025 was Pieter Coetze, the male backstroke star who trains under Meiring at Tuks in Pretoria.
Coetze had previously committed to joining the Cal Bears in the NCAA, but reversed course in 2023 and opted to stay with Meiring in the long term, a move that’s clearly paying dividends.
After warming up at the SA National Aquatic Championship in April, setting personal best times in the 50 free (22.02) and 100 free (48.63), and hitting a world-leading time in the 100 back (52.71) and a #2-ranked time globally in the 200 back (1:56.07), Coetze exploded in the summer.
At the World University Games in July, Coetze unleashed a time of 51.99 in the 100 back, winning gold, breaking his African Record (52.18) and moving to #8 all-time in the event.
Coetze also won gold in the 50 back (24.49) and claimed silver in the 100 free (48.12) at WUGs, setting a new personal best time in the latter.
The pool swimming competition at the 2025 World Championships got underway just four days after it ended at WUGs, but that didn’t matter to Coetze.
He became the first African man ever to win the 100 back world title, dropping a time of 51.85 in the final to lower his newly minted Continental Record and move into #3 all-time in the event, beating reigning Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon (51.90) head-to-head.
Coetze also set new African Records en route to silver medals in the 50 back (24.17) and 200 back (1:53.36), the latter swim ranking him #7 all-time.
The other World Championship medalist Meiring coached this year was Kaylene Corbett, who finished 4th in the women’s 200 breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and then placed 7th last year in Paris, but had yet to win a medal at either the Olympics or Worlds heading into 2025.
The 26-year-old got the job done this year, tying for bronze in the 200 breast at the World Championships in Singapore in a time of 2:23.52, her fastest swim since the semis in Paris (2:22.87).
Meiring also coached Erin Gallagher to a solid year, including setting a new South African Record in the women’s 50 fly at the World Championships in a time of 25.39, just one one-hundredth shy of Farida Osman‘s African Record of 25.38 set in 2022. Gallagher’s swim, produced in the semis in Singapore, advanced her 3rd into the final, where she finished 8th (25.66).
Gallagher also finished 13th in the 100 fly at Worlds, clocking 57.48 in the prelims to narrowly miss her African Record of 57.32 set in 2024. The 26-year-old also split 57.31 swimming fly on the South African women’s 4×100 medley relay, as they clocked 3:59.47 in the heats to break the African Record and narrowly miss a lane in the final in 9th.
Meiring, who served as the head coach of the South African team in Singapore, was recognized at last month’s Swimming South Africa Awards as the Coach of the Year, while Coetze and Corbett won Male and Female Swimmer honors.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Michelle Vlasakova (RSA): Vlasakova, the longtime coach of Chris Smith at the Alcatraz Swimming Club in Centurion, coached him to the best year of his career in 2025, nearly snagging a medal at the World Championships. Smith, the current World Junior Record holder in the SCM 50 breaststroke (25.66), set new long course personal bests in all three rounds of the 50 breast at the Worlds in Singapore, clocking 26.82 in the prelims, 26.77 in the semis and then 26.75 in the final, placing 6th and missing the medals by just eight one-hundredths of a second. Smith also set a PB of 1:00.85 in the 100 breast, placing 25th. Then, in October at the Carmel leg of the World Cup (SCM), Smith had the biggest victory of his career, topping a strong 50 breast field in a time of 25.75, beating current 200 and 100 breast world record holders Caspar Corbeau and Ilya Shymanovich in the process.Past Winners:
2024 – Rocco Meiring 2023 – Rocco Meiring 2022 – Rocco Meiring 2021 – Rocco Meiring 2020 – Rocco Meiring 2019 – Rocco Meiring 2018 – Rocco Meiring 2017 – Bianca Marais 2016 – Mark Bernardino 2015 – Graham HillRead the full story on SwimSwam: 2025 Swammy Awards: African Coach of the Year – Rocco Meiring
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