Trio of sisters destined for Olympics

It’s not often that you find three sisters who share the same passion and dedication for swimming. They positively glow with excitement when telling their story… The Vyncke sisters laughingly confess that they are sisters out of the water, but sworn enemies in the pool. Oldest sibling Danika is 15 years old and has already qualified for the Paralympics, even though she says she doesn’t want to ‘just qualify’. She is aiming higher and wants to at least compete in the final heat. This means that she has to train harder to swim a better time. Danika and younger sister Ivana (14) suffer from vision impairment, thus falling into the S13 category at the Paralympics. By definition, Vision Impairment athletes have reduced or no vision caused by damage to the eye structure, optical nerves or optical pathways, or visual cortex of the brain. Ivana is currently a few seconds shy of the qualifying time for the Paralympics.

Youngest sister Giuliana, at 12 years old, is astonishingly only two seconds away from the Junior Olympic qualifying time. When you ask Giuliana about this exceptional achievement, she merely smiles and shrugs her shoulders. Danika and Ivana immediately explain that Giuliana ‘lives in her own bubble’ and doesn’t get fazed by much. She easily wins her age division by a 25m margin. Giuliana says she merely competes and doesn’t think about it. She and the other two sisters concentrate on beating the clock and bettering their times at every event. It appears that the girls inherited their talent from dad Julien, who was a South African swimmer and missed the Commonwealth Games by a hundredth of a split second.

Although the sisters have been swimming from a young age, they only started competing at school level.
In 2018, they became more interested in the sport when they realised they were improving. When Covid-19 hit, they trained even harder since they ‘had nothing better to do’. Their swimming improved drastically in 2021 and landed them with Coach Graham Hill, the Olympic coach of Chad le Clos! As a triple Springbok swimmer, surf lifesaver and water polo player, Graham Hill remains the only swimmer to win seven individual titles at the South African Swimming Championships in 1985. The girls get a programme from Graham every day that they need to follow before they join Coach Denise at Vryheid Swimming Club for further training. They are also very grateful to have Ronel from V&R Gym in their lives, where they do strength training on a daily basis.

The sisters complement each other perfectly, since Danika enjoys longer distances; Ivana does middle distances; and Giuliana is the ‘sprinter’ of the trio. The girls recently competed in the six-day KZN Premiership gala, where a swimmer needs a level 3 to compete. Professional swimmers like Tatjana Schoenmaker also take part in this gala. Giuliana has a higher qualification than a level 3 and qualified for the Senior SA Nationals, even though she is still a junior.

The two older girls are going to Italy early this year to get their International Classifications that will allow them to take part internationally. Giuliana’s time is faster than her sisters, but because of her young age, she might not be able to get her classification. Their coach will still decide if Giuliana’s times are good enough to compete at next year’s Junior Olympics, because she will be at the tender age of 14 at the time. Even if Giuliana qualifies for the Junior Olympics, coaches often hold swimmers back because of their age. The Youth Olympic Games are aimed at athletes from 15 to 18 years of age from around the world. All three sisters are extremely focused and dedicated when it comes to training and competing. The bond between them is strong and solid, and there is no shortage of support from both dad Julien and mom Monica.

The sisters admit that they love Vryheid and their current club, and wouldn’t want to move to Durban where their coach is based. Vryheid will keep an eye out for these three girls in the future, because they are surely destined for greatness!

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The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area.

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