Rocco Meiring was named the Coach of the Year at the 18th edition of the South African Sports Awards, themed “Celebrating Sporting Excellence,” on Sunday. The award spans all sports and recognizes the coach who had the greatest impact on the nation for the calendar year.
Meiring has been named SwimSwam’s “African Coach of the Year” for the past seven seasons.
After winning two medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, including gold in the women’s 200 breast, Meiring coached Tatjana Smith back to two Olympic podiums in Paris, highlighted by another title.
The 27-year-old Smith grabbed gold in the 100 breast, having qualified 1st out of both the prelims and semis in identical times of 1:05.00. She ultimately notched 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 head-to-head with American Kate Douglass in the final of the 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 quick outings in the 200 breast.
At the South African National Championships in April, Smith went 2:19.92 in the heats and then 2:19.01 in the final, and then followed up by logging 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 post-Paris 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 then 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), hit the wall 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.
Coetze has been on an absolute tear ever since, having won the 100 back at the World Championships in Singapore last month in addition to silvers in the 50 and 200 distances, with all three swims representing national records.
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, capturing 7th.
Like Coetze, Corbett has continued to impress, securing bronze in the 200 breast at the World Championships last month.
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.
