![]() ![]() There, the American teenager Amanda Beard was being touted as a potential double breaststroke gold medallist. This whole Tokyo Games reminds me of Atlanta 1996. Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa reacts after setting Olympic record. ![]() Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Swimming – Women’s 100m Breaststroke – Heats – Tokyo Aquatics Centre – Tokyo, Japan – July 25, 2021. ![]() The fact that it’s being held a year later suits the South African even more, given she is now ranked No1 in the world in the 200m and only a few weeks ago turned 24 herself. But, I have felt for a while now, going back to when she won the 100/200m double at the 2018 Commonwealth Games that the Tokyo 2020 Olympics would be the Tatjana Schoenmaker show. King, and possibly another American in Lydia Jacoby, still have some day in the matter. We need to be reminded that this was the heats, and there are still Monday’s semi-final followed by Tuesday’s final to come. So, she has proven she can go that low, but she will have gone to bed with the vision of Schoenmaker’s green Team SA cap and long, loose athletic levers at the front of her mind. The American might be unbeaten in six years but she’s got a fight on her hands here, and it is worth remembering that she holds the world record at 1:04.13. The scoreboard showed 1:04.82, taking 0.11 seconds off King’s Olympic record set in Rio in 2016. Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa reacts. Then she let out that flashing smile, or was it a laugh? Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Swimming – Women’s 100m Breaststroke – Heats – Tokyo Aquatics Centre – Tokyo, Japan – July 25, 2021. She touched the wall in lane five in heat five, looked at the scoreboard and threw her hands up into the air. BUT, just a few minutes earlier Schoenmaker had upstaged her. ![]() Well, here in Tokyo she extended her winning streak, getting to the wall first in heat six in 1min 05.55sec. They noted that the 24-year-old Olympic champion had not lost a 100m breaststroke race since 2015 – and counting. In fact, USA Today was one of the global publications who nailed her to the mast as the “banker” of these 2020 Games in the pool. Through the entire build-up to Tokyo all the talk in the 100m has been about the American Lily King. Schoenmaker’s best is so much better than anyone else’s. “If I win a medal then I’d be very happy, but if I don’t then I’ll still be happy with the fact I got to experience the Olympic Games and gave it my best.” Schoenmaker also told the world that she’d “be happy” with whatever her fate is at these Games. The goal though is always to do well in both, but the 200 is my better event.” It can help me break the ice a little… I’m nervous and excited, I’m looking forward to the 200. “I’m excited about the 100, because it allows me to get a feel of the water. She was prepared to tell the world that she was “happy” that the 100m breaststroke event would come before in the swimming schedule. She was playing down the fact that she was favourite for the women’s 200m breaststroke gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics… writes GARY LEMKE in Tokyo. Here’s a report from TeamSA’s Gary Lemke on the amazing Olympic feat by SA’s brilliantly humble swimmer: All week, South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker had been trying to make the world believe that “what would be, would be”. “When I saw I was ahead, I thought I was dying because I was going way too fast at the end and I thought I could just try and hold on.” South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker just unexpectedly set a new Olympic Record in her Women’s 100m Breaststroke heat! From the disappointment of not making the Olympic swim qualifications five years ago for Rio, she has broken a record in her very first swim at an Olympic Games! “I didn’t expect that at all,” Tatjana said afterwards. ![]()
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