She said, “It is hard work to achieve your goals, but you forget how painful it’s been when you’re standing on the podium after reaching all the goals you’ve set for yourself.”
Geraldine Jansens (75) is not your run-of-the-mill senior citizen. She is an active businesswoman who juggles her business with competitive swimming in the Masters category. Jansens recently returned from the Masters Championships in Port Elizabeth and bagged a cache of medals.
The competition was held at Newton Park from March 20 to 24 and, after a long absence from competitive swimming, astounded onlookers by scooping gold in the 100-metre backstroke and shattering the national record. She repeated the same feat in the 50- and 200-metre backstroke categories, breaking the national record by 18 seconds.
Geraldine Jansens said she has always felt at home in the water.
As if that were not enough, she achieved bronze and silver in the 50-metre freestyle and 200-metre individual medley respectively and achieved her South African colours in the discipline. According to her, she has always had a love of swimming, but last competed in Britain at the age of 22 years old.
After her arrival in South Africa in 1973, her love of the sport was all but forgotten until a Park Run injury forced her back into the swimming pool in 2017.
She said, “I am a very competitive person in business and work, and having something to achieve is what drives me.” Jansens also had a few pearls of wisdom to dispense to youngsters keen on taking up any sport.
The backstroke champion swims up to three kilometres per day.
She said, “It is hard work to achieve your goals, but you forget how painful it’s been when you’re standing on the podium after reaching all the goals you’ve set for yourself.”
Accompanying her on the trip to Port Elizabeth was close friend Emily Khumalo (37), a first-time swimmer who achieved bronze in the 50-metre breaststroke category.
Jansens added, “She had never done anything like this before and to see her being excited about being the only black swimmer at the Masters to achieve something like this was amazing.”
The champion said she was looking forward to August when she will represent SA at the World Championships in South Korea. She spends one and a half hours in the pool daily, swimming up to three kilometres in the water in preparation for this daunting challenge.
Geraldine shows off her haul of medals.
“I feel at home in the water and what is left now is the World Record and I know down the track, it will be mine.”
Fighting words from the passionate swimmer who will be put through her paces by her brother-in-law and former Olympic medal coach, Michael Higgs.
With her indomitable spirit and fiery disposition, we will watch this space and keep our fingers crossed that she will indeed bag a haul of medals at the championships in Korea later this year.
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