Eight former Olympic swimmers were among the 30 sporting legends inducted into the South African Hall of Fame last month.
The induction ceremony took place on August 29 at Montecasino and welcomed swimmers Cameron van der Burgh, Marianne Kriel, Penny Heyns, Terence Parkin, Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling into the prestigious class.
Over the course of their careers, the eight athletes collectively brought home 10 Olympic medals for South Africa between 1996 and 2016.
Schoeman, Ferns, Townsend and Neethling, all alumni of the University of Arizona men’s swimming and diving program, set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle relay at the 2004 Olympic Games. The squad threw down a time of 3:13.17 to win gold for South Africa in a surprise upset over the United States.
Outside of the Olympic relay, each of the former Wildcats racked up a number of individual accolades as well during their time in the pool, as did the other swimmers who were inducted alongside them.
Roland Schoeman: Four-time Olympian spanning 2000 to 2012, won silver in the 100-meter free and bronze in the 50-meter free in Athens, NCAA champion in the 50-meter free in 2002, two-time world champion in the 50-meter butterfly, was the individual world record holder in the LCM 50 butterfly, SCM 50 freestyle, SCM 100 freestyle and SCM 100 individual medley.
Ryk Neethling: Nine-time individual NCAA champion and 17-time All-American at Arizona, named the 1998-1999 NCAA Division I Swimmer of the Year, received the University of Arizona Athlete of the Century Award, broke over 20 junior national records, held 22 South African National titles, was a four-time Olympian spanning 1996 to 2008.
Lyndon Ferns: Became the NCAA champion in the 100-yard butterfly in 2006 in a school record time of 45.89, earned eight individual First Team All-America honors and 15 relay All-America honors as a Wildcat, raced the 100-meter butterfly, 100-meter freestyle, 400-meter freestyle relay, and the 400-meter medley relay at the 2008 London Games.
Darian Townsend: Swam for Arizona from 2006-2008 after transferring, was a two-time individual NCAA champion and three-time Olympian, won three gold medals at the 2011 African Games.
Marianne Kriel: Bronze medalist in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, won gold in the 200-meter backstroke at the 1995 SCM FINA World Swimming Championships.
Penny Heyns: Youngest member of the South African Olympic team at the 1992 Barcelona Games, has held five out of the six possible world records in breaststroke events, became the first woman to win gold in both the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke in a single Olympics at the 1996 Atlanta Games, won bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2000 Sydney Games.
Terence Parkin: Silver medalist in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Sydney Olympics, bronze medalist in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 1999 Pan Pacific Championships, won five medals (three gold) at the 1999 African Games, brought home a total of 21 medals (10 gold) across six Swimming World Cup championships.
Cameron van der Burgh: Broke three world records, two African records and two national records, brought home a total of 77 gold medals over the course of his career, won gold in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2012 London Olympics, won silver in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was a two-time World Champion.
The South African Hall of Fame aims to honor the extraordinary achievements of South Africans while inspiring future generations and includes the likes of Nelson Mandela, Wayne Taylor, Sally Little and both the 1995 and 2007 Rugby World Cup teams.
One of the greatest SA swimmers of all time not included: Jonty Skinner
Thought Darian Townsend became an American citizen, no?
Does that negate eligibility for South Africa if he was still a SA citizen during his success?
Ryk Neethling was unique in that he was the only men’s swimmer in Olympic history to final in the 1500m freestyle (twice, finishing 5th both times in ’96, ’00) and drop down to the 100m freestyle (finishing 4th in ’04).
Roland…when you adjust for what year they swam, nobody was more ahead of the world than him to 15m….best start in the game
Fun fact Terrence Parkin is a deaf swimmer and has numerous deaflympic gold medals as well
I was just about to post this… let’s not forget that Terence Parkin is also deaf. I remember swimming in a couple of meets with him and he used to get a little light signal when the start signal went off.