Competing at her first Olympic Games, Joyce Tafatatha was the youngest athlete in Malawi's Olympic history at the age of 14. She, along with Aurélie Fanchette of the Seychelles, were two of the youngest competitors at the London Olympic Games, Tafataha said that despite being nervous, she was looking forward to competing at the Olympics and stated: "It’s going to be so exciting.” FINA awarded her a universality place because her fastest time did not meet the "B" qualifying standard. Tafataha was drawn in the fourth heat of the women's 50 metres freestyle which was held on 3 August, finishing first out of seven swimmers, with a time of 27.74 seconds. She recorded a new personal best two seconds faster than her previous fastest, and was the first Malawian athlete to win a heat in the women's 50 metre freestyle. She finished 46th out of 73 swimmers overall, and although she won, she did not progress to the semi-finals, because her time was 2.46 seconds slower than the slowest athlete who advanced to the later stages.