JOHANNESBURG  - According to the Ryk Neethling Swimming School, a whole new awareness has been created among South African parents and their children because of the publicity the Olympics receives.

“Heroes have been created at the Olympics and children want to follow in their footsteps,” said the schools co-founder Bettie Rooets.

“Swimming does not receive the same publicity that rugby and cricket get, so a child won’t really know about it. Parents also just see swimming as a sport of choice, more than a sport of necessity.”

She said one of the school’s franchises had been swamped with calls the morning after Durban swimmer Chad le Clos won a gold medal after beating the United State’s great Michael Phelps in the men’s 200m butterfly final.

Swimmer Cameron van der Burgh also clinched a gold medal for the 100m breaststroke in a world record time of 58.46 seconds. Both swimmers received a hero’s welcome upon their arrival back into the country on Thursday.

“The school was swamped with telephone calls and inquiries from parents wanting to enrol their children into the school.”

Neethling himself tweeted on Thursday that this was the case.

“My swim schools are being swamped with applications with people of all ages wanting to learn how to swim #goldmedaleffect,” he said.

Rooets called the Olympic exposure to the sport an “unbelievable blessing”.

“To teach a child to swim is such an important thing, and one of the things that comes out of this exposure is the fact that it shows we can make a home grown world champion and don’t need to constantly have athletes train overseas,” she said.

Rowing  South Africa (Rowsa) administrator Gaynor Du Toit said there was “no doubt” that SA’s gold medal in the men’s lightweight four final had created more interest in the sport of rowing.

Lawrence Ndlovu, Matthew Brittain, John Smith and James Thompson, had done the country proud, she said.

“We can’t wait for them to get back.”

Inquiries about learning the sport received on the Rowsa’s website had increased, she said, but the real effect would only be judged when the rowing season started.