Tatjana Schoenmaker
Tatjana Schoenmaker (born 9 July 1997) is a South African swimmer specialising in breaststroke events. She won the gold medal and set the world record in the 200-metre breaststroke and also won the silver medal in the 100-metre breaststroke at the 2020 Olympic Games. She is the world record holder in the long course 200-metre breaststroke. Career. 2018 Commonwealth Games. She competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning gold medals in women's 100 metre breaststroke and the women's 200 metre breaststroke. 2020 Summer Olympics. In June 2021, Schoenmaker qualified to represent South Africa  at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Schoenmaker entered the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan as the number one seed and predicted winner of the 200-metre breaststroke. She also entered the 100-metre breaststroke as the number four seed. In the prelims of the 100-metre breaststroke, Schoenmaker ranked first out of all heats, advanced to the semifinals, and set a new Olympic record and a new African record in the event with her time of 1:04.82. The Olympic record she broke was a time of 1:04.93 set at the 2016 Summer Olympics by American Lilly King. In the semifinals , Schoenmaker swam the fastest time of 1:05.07 and ranked first heading into the final. In the final, Schoenmaker won the silver medal, which was the first medal for a South African woman in swimming at an Olympic Games since 2000. In the prelims heats of the 200-metre breaststroke on day five of competition, Schoenmaker swam a 2:19.16, setting a new Olympic record, advancing to the semifinals ranked first overall, and swimming less than a tenth of a second slower than the world record of 2:19.11 set by Rikke Pedersen. In the semifinals of the event, Schoenmaker swam a 2:19.33  and ranked first heading into the final. In the final, Schoenmaker set a new world record in the 200-metre breaststroke with her time of 2:18.95 and won the gold medal. Her world record was the first individual world record set in the sport of swimming at the 2020 Olympic Games. Her gold medal was the first gold medal won by an athlete from South Africa at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Her teammate, Kaylene Corbett, also reached the finals, making it the first time since Sydney 2000 that two South African women reached the finals of the same event. 2022 . At the 2022 South Africa National Swimming Championships, Schoenmaker won the silver medal in the 50-metre breaststroke, placing second less than three-tenths of a second behind Lara van Niekerk with a time of 30.87 seconds and achieving a qualifying time for the 2022 World Aquatics Championships and 2022 Commonwealth Games in the event. She won the gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke on day three with a time of 2:24.01. In her third event, she swam a 1:06.06 to win the silver medal in the 100-metre breaststroke, which also marked the third event she qualified in  for the World Championships and Commonwealth Games.