Despite Tatjana Schoenmaker’s abiding faith, the South African swimmer finds her achievements this year somewhat surreal after she returned from the Tokyo Olympics with two medals and one world record.
According to reports, her bountiful returns came five years after missing out on the Rio Games, having failed to qualify by just one-hundredth of a second.
Her 200m breaststroke triumph proved to be South Africa’s sole gold medal in Japan and was her country’s first female medal in an Olympic pool since the great Penny Heyns took bronze in 2000.
Schoenmaker, 24, told newsmen that the feat still feels unreal.
After five years of relentless training, Schoenmaker’s emotions came out after her 200m victory, screaming when it dawned she had broken the world record with a time of 2:18.95 before breaking into tears.
The African Sports Personality of the Year nominee recalled that her first reaction was very dull for someone who’d won and broken the world record.
