Namibia’s Ronan Wantenaar On A Groundbreaking Year: “It’s Crazy To Think How Far I’ve Come”

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
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  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8
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Ronan Wantenaar has had a historic year for Namibia, becoming their first-ever world championship semi-finalist in swimming back in December and doing so again at the very next opportunity this summer.

He did so for the first time at the short course world championships in Budapest, placing 16th in the 50 breast, before finishing 10th in the same event in long course in Singapore this summer.

That does underplay just how close he came to going one step further. After he set a national record of 26.85 in the heats, two-tenths under his previous mark of 27.05, he stopped the clock in 26.94 in the semi-finals – just one one-hundredth shy of tying for 8th and forcing a swim-off for a berth in the final.

That ended up being a two-way tie for 8th in 26.93 between Austrian Luka Mladenovic and Frenchman Antoine Viquerat, with Mladenovic going on to win the swim-off in 26.97 to advance to the final, where he placed 8th.

Wantenaar, however, was still only 0.02 seconds away from 7th and a guaranteed finals berth.

The 50 was his strongest event coming into Singapore as he owned that best of 27.05, set at the Monaco stop of this year’s Mare Nostrum. That time would have already been enough to place him 13th out of the heats.

However, he did not rest on his laurels and dipped below the 27-second barrier for the first time ever in the morning. In doing so, he became the first African swimmer from outside South Africa to break that mark, and now sits 4th all-time in the continental rankings.

All-Time African Men, 50m Breaststroke

1. Cameron van der Burgh, RSA (2017) – 26.54
2. Chris Smith, RSA (2025) – 26.75
3. Michael Houlie, RSA (2019) – 26.82
4. Ronan Wantenaar, NAM (2025) – 26.85
5. Giulio Zorzi, RSA (2013) – 27.04

His heats swim of 26.85 ranked him 7th coming into the semi-finals, ahead of 2023 world champion Qin Haiyang and 100 breast finalists Caspar Corbeau and Lucas Matzerath. Wantenaar ended up beating out Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi and Japan’s National Record holder Taku Taniguchi in the semi-finals, despite adding slightly.

His performances both in Singapore and through the year as a whole have come as a surprise to even himself.

“I wasn’t expecting to perform the way I have this summer, even short course in Budapest was also a surprise to me… I can’t say that I saw myself achieving these times…My next goals would be to push for a medal at the Commonwealth Games next summer and make my name and country known to the world in the process.”

Wantenaar ends the year at 15th in the season rankings for the 50 breast, marking the first time since 2013 that two African swimmers have ranked in the top 15. That year, Cameron van der Burgh (1st) and Giulio Zorzi (3rd) stood on the podium at worlds.

This was not Wantenaar’s first swim of the meet either. He was 1:00.63 in the 100 breast on the first day of competition, coming within seven-tenths of a semi-final swim there with 59.98 required.

That was just off his personal best and national record of 1:00.53, set at the Giant Open meet in Paris this May – a meet where he outduelled several elite French and Dutch swimmers, as well as Michael Andrew.

Wantenaar has seen staggering progression since he first graced the world stage at the 2017 World Championships. He placed 58th in the 50 breast there in Budapest in a time of 30.27, and did not compete in the 100.

Season Best Times

His prowess is also not limited to breaststroke – he holds national records in the 50 back, 100 back, 100 IM, and 200 IM as well as all three breaststroke distances

He has improved significantly since his first international appearance, and is on track to become a contender in at least the 50 breast at next year’s Commonwealth games. There are only four active Commonwealth swimmers with best times faster than the Namibian athlete: Adam Peaty, Sam Williamson, Chris Smith and Michael Houlie.

With Peaty taking the 2024-25 season off and targeting one last hurrah at LA 2028, and Williamson still recovering from a gruesome knee injury, Wantenaar would not be a surprising medalist. He would become the first swimmer from Namibia to stand on the Commonwealth podium if he does do that, and Cameron van der Burgh’s African Record of 26.54 may even be in jeopardy – this is a record he himself now says he has his eyes on.

He is aware of the responsibilities that come with becoming a role model back home. Wantenaar says that it was watching Chad le Clos win Olympic gold in the 200 fly in 2012 that inspired him to commit to swimming – “awe-inspiring” was the phrase used – and just over a decade later he finds himself on the same stage as his own role models.

“It still feels surreal to me to be on the same stage as world champions and Olympic medalists. Being a top African swimmer is something many aspire to become and having people look up to me is an honour…I have to be wise with how I present myself as the younger generation.”

African athletes had a fantastic World Championships, with Ahmed Jaouadi winning double gold in the men’s distance freestyle events and Pieter Coetze winning the men’s 100 back in addition to taking silver in the 50 and 200.

Wantenaar can count himself among the very top African swimmers right now – he was one of six to make a semi-final or final in Singapore, and along with Jaouadi one of just two from outside South Africa.

The Journey

Last summer, Wantenaar was the 2024 African Games champion in the 100 breast, as he clocked a time of 1:01.86 in Accra, Ghana, where he also took silver in the 200 in a time of 2:15.52. However, he had been competing on the continental stage for nearly a decade now.

He made his debut at the AUSC – Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games in Angola in 2016, aged just 15, before making multiple finals at the 12th African Junior Swimming Championships the following year.

He was not even a semi-finalist in his current premier event at the World Junior Championships in 2019, placing 33rd in the 50 breast. Three years later, and having dropped a second, he made the semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games. He was not the only Namibian to progress in Birmingham, with Xander Skinner making the semi-finals of the 100 freestyle.

Singapore was Wantenaar’s third world championship in a row, having swum in Fukuoka and Doha. At the latter, he was just 0.19 seconds away from a semi-final berth, as he placed 19th in 27.81.

He is not only a history-maker for Namibia, but also a huge success story for World Aquatics’ decade-old scholarship program. He is the first swimmer from the program to qualify for a World Championship semi-final, and very nearly became its first finalist in Singapore as well.

Sajan Prakash, a multi-record holder for India who has qualified directly (via ‘A’ cut) for the Olympics and made a Commonwealth final in 2022, is another graduate, but Wantenaar has soared to new heights.

He currently trains in Antibes, France, where he has been on the World Aquatics scholarship since 2024. The World Aquatics centre there opened 10 months before the Paris Olympics and is an addendum to the CN Antibes club led by Fred Vergnoux, who was named as the top club coach in the world in 2014.

The Antibes program had seen a stunning 106 National Records broken by its swimmers during just the first three and a half months of this season. While data for the full season is not yet available, a conservative estimate would be double that number – a huge indication of the progress made by the swimmers involved.

The club has recently had Summer McIntosh spend an extended period of time, as she trained in France from January until returning to North America for Canadian Trials in June. There, she broke three world records (200 IM, 400 IM, 400 free), swam the #2 time ever in the 200 fly and #3 time ever in the 800 free.

Prior to training in France, Wantenaar had been training in Kazan, Russia and then Phuket, Thailand, both also on the WA scholarship program.

“The fact that I have been to many different WA scholarship centres and been part of the development program for years makes me feel very fortunate and blessed. I can still remember applying for the scholarship back in 2019 while studying and thinking I will probably not get the scholarship but it won’t hurt to try. Fast track a few years down the line, I’m now the first scholarship holder to qualify for semifinals.”

He is a flagship athlete for the program, and has now made semi-finals at both the short course and long course world championships. No scholarship athlete has ever qualified for a world or Olympic final before, making Wantenaar’s close shave in the 50 breast this year even more agonising.

He is hoping to bring further awareness to the sport in Namibia, providing support to older athletes and driving investment in infrastructure and development.

“Swimming in Namibia has seen its years of ups and downs. We have had athletes that have gone to Youth Olympic games and world championships but we haven’t been able to produce long term athletes as the sport doesn’t pay in Namibia, swimming infrastructure isn’t ideal, coaching is limited and many athletes do not have the funds to participate in international competitions so I am hoping to draw in investors to grow funding and support and inspire more people to take part in swimming”

It would be remiss not to pencil him in as a finals contender in the 50 for two years time. The improvement and consistency of improvement he has shown over the last few years has been staggering, and this success story is not finished quite yet.