See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards here.
It was another banner year for South African coach Rocco Meiring in his final one coaching star breaststroker Tatjana Smith (née Schoenmaker).
After winning two medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, including gold in the women’s 200 breast, Meiring guided Smith back to two Olympic podiums in Paris, highlighted by another title.
The 27-year-old Smith roared to gold in the women’s 100 breast, having qualified 1st out of both the prelims and semis in identical times of 1:05.00 before clocking 1:05.28 in the final to top China’s Tang Qianting (1:05.54) and Ireland’s Mona McSharry (1:05.59).
Three days later, Smith went toe-to-toe with American Kate Douglass in the final of the women’s 200 breast, ultimately earning the silver medal in a time of 2:19.60.
The former world record holder in the event, having clocked 2:18.95 at the Olympics in 2021, Smith’s year wasn’t just highlighted by what she did in Paris, as she had some other blazing-fast swims in the 200 breast.
At the SA National Aquatic Championships in April, Smith went 2:19.92 in the heats and then 2:19.01 in the final, and then followed up by clocking 2:19.84 in June. Having gone 2:19.94 in the semis in Paris before her 2:19.60 in the final, Smith broke 2:20 five times in 2024, something only nine other women have ever done. Making that even more impressive is the fact that Smith hadn’t been under 2:20 since the Tokyo Olympics until 2024.
Smith retired as South Africa’s most decorated Olympian in history.
Meiring coached five of the eight swimmers on the South African Olympic team, all at the University of Pretoria (Tuks), including the top male performer in the pool, Pieter Coetze, who set new African Records in the Olympic final of both men’s backstroke events.
Coetze set a new Continental Record in the semis of the 100 back, clocking 52.63 to lower his previous mark of 52.78, and then got down to 52.58 in the final, placing 5th.
In the 200 back, Coetze took down the super-suited African Record previously held by fellow South African George du Rand, clocking 1:55.60 to lower du Rand’s mark of 1:55.75 from 2009. The performance earned Coetze a 7th-place finish, though he was just 22 one-hundredths back of 4th.
Those performances came after Coetze won bronze in the 200 back (1:55.99), placed 4th in the 50 back (24.46 in semis) and finished 5th in the 100 back (53.07 in semis) at the 2024 Worlds in Doha, with his swims in the 50 and 200 marking new personal bests at the time.
Meiring also coached Erin Gallagher to a semi-final appearance at the Olympics in the women’s 100 fly, placing 14th, and Kaylene Corbett to a second consecutive finals berth in the women’s 200 breast, placing 7th.
Matt Sates, who joined Meiring’s group in 2023, qualified for a second Olympics, finishing as high as 20th in the men’s 200 fly after his best finish at the 2024 Worlds was an 8th-place showing in the same event.
Gallagher was also a fixture in Doha, placing 4th in the women’s 50 fly, 7th in the 100 fly and 11th in the 100 free.
HONORABLE MENTION:
- Graham Hill (RSA) – Hill relocated to New Zealand in 2023, and following him there was Rebecca Meder, who previously worked with him in South Africa. Meder suffered a ruptured appendix just three weeks out of the South African Nationals in April, though she had already locked in Olympic qualification in the 200 IM. In her second appearance at the Games, Meder had an impressive showing in Paris, placing 11th in the women’s 200 IM in a South African Record time of 2:10.67. She followed up by competing at Short Course Worlds in December, setting new African Records in the women’s 100 IM (57.69) and 200 IM (2:05.61), placing 4th and 6th, respectively, while also landing finals appearances in the 200 breast (5th in 2:18.26) and 100 breast (6th in 1:03.93). Both of her breaststroke swims narrowly missed the African Records held by Tatjana Smith (1:03.89/2:18.02).
Past Winners:
- 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 Hill
