South Africa’s golden swimming star, Tatjana Schoenmaker,received a rousing – and well-deserved – welcome from her Team SA compatriots at the Olympic Village in Tokyo on Friday.
Earlier in the day, the 24-year-old won South Africa’s first – and so far only – gold medal of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when she broke the women’s 200m breaststroke world record coming first in the race.
Schoenmaker posted 2:18.95 which was 0.16 quicker than Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen’s old mark.
The medal was South Africa’s 89th of all time and the 20th won in swimming since 1904.
It was also the first medal of any colour by a South African female swimmer since the bronze picked up by Penny Heyns in the 100m breaststroke at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Schoenmaker matched Heyns in winning the 200m breaststroke gold at an Olympic Games as the latter did in 1996 in Atlanta.
Earlier in the week, Schoenmaker took the silver in the 100m breaststroke.
Watch below as chants of “shosholoza” greeted Schoenmaker as she arrived back at the Team SA Olympic Village.
Tweeted Maphuti Hlako
@maphuti_africa
This is what @TRSchoenmaker came home (Team SA Olympic Village) to. I absolutely love being South African