Masters swimmer qualifies for world champs

Michele Esterhuizen recently returned from the South African Masters Swimming 33rd Long Course and Open Water Championship in East London with seven gold medals.

May 4, 2017

Philippa Francis 1 minute read

The 44-year-old’s incredible achievements mean she has qualified for the 17th FINA Masters World Champs in Budapest in August, though without a sponsor, it is unlikely she will be able to attend.

She would compete in the 45 to 49 age group which means she is just entering the category.

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“Because I will be a little younger than or a similar age to the other participants, I might just have a chance to win a medal,” Esterhuizen says.

In East London, she won the 50-metre breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle, also collecting top honours in the 100-metre freestyle, butterfly and 200-metre individual medley. In the one-kilometre open-water event, she even beat “all the boys” to win.

Esterhuizen only took up Masters swimming last year, although she has swum in a number of local galas and open-water events over the past few years.

Competitive swimming has been in her blood from a young age when she “gave it a bash” at nine years old at a club in Harare, Zimbabwe. A year later she was chosen to represent the province, and at just 12 years old, it was her country, at the Luxembourg youth meet. Photo: James Munroe

She swam for Zimbabwe 10 times as a junior, her greatest accolades including a silver and bronze medal for freestyle at the All Africa Games in Kenya.

Sadly, she stopped swimming when she started working full-time at 19 and then moved to Botswana where she met her husband Hein. His nickname for her, funnily enough, is aptly Michy Good Swimmer.

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She moved back with him to Mbombela when they got married. Together they have two sons, Ethan (10) and Aidan (7) who both attend Laerskool Bergland. Ethan is quite the swimmer already, mom says.