By Sean Griffin on SwimSwam
Tatjana Smith (née Schoenmaker) won both Sportswoman of the Year and the overall Sports Star of the Year at the 18th edition of the South African Sports Awards, themed “Celebrating Sporting Excellence,” on Sunday.
She received 500,000 South African Rand from the awards, which is $28,382.80 in United States Dollars.
“South Africa, thank you for allowing me to be your golden girl. It’s honestly been an honour, it was bigger than I ever dreamed. I can’t put into words how much your support has meant. There are no words to describe how special it was to stand on the stage and represent South Africa. I never want to give that up for the world,” Smith said on earning the honors.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by -TATJANA SMITH (SCHOENMAKER)- (@tatjanaschoen)
At the Paris Olympics last year, the recently-retired Smith won gold in the 100 breast (1:05.28), less than half a second off the 1:04.82 national record she set three seasons prior.
In the 200, she clocked 2:19.60 to finish as the runner-up to American Kate Douglass (2:19.24). Smith still owns the Olympic Record (and former world record) of 2:18.95 set three years ago. Smith hadn’t got back under 2:20 until this year, firing off a time of 2:19.01 at the South African Championships in April.
Her finishes in the two events were the opposite of what happened in Tokyo, where she was the gold medalist in the 200 and the runner-up in the 100. Her four Olympic medals make Smith the most decorated South African Olympian in history, matching Chad Le Clos‘ tally of four medals, but with two golds compared to Le Clos’ one.
Smith first made headlines on the international stage in 2018, winning double breaststroke gold at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. She claimed silver in the 200 breast at the 2019 World Championships, and then reached new heights in Tokyo by becoming Olympic champion in the 200 and the silver medalist in the 100 breast.
After taking a bit of a hiatus from high-level competition post-Tokyo, resurfacing for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and repeating as the 200 breast champion and winning silver in the 100 breast, she won her first and only world title in the 200 breast at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka.
She also won the World University Games title in the 100 and 200 breast in 2019, and when she won 200-meter gold in Fukuoka, she became the first swimmer since 1992 to hold the Olympic, LC World Championship and World University Games gold medals in the same event.
Her victory in Tokyo also made her the first South African woman to win swimming gold at the Olympics since Penny Heyns in 1996.
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