Swimmer Schoenmaker remains focused despite external factors
Despite the threat posed by COVID-19 to the 2020 Olympics, Pretoria's most promising swimmer has another important goal to focus on before she can think of the Games.
Although it is old news by now that the 2020 Olympics are threatened by the COVID-19 crisis, there are several sports stars who are still preparing for the big event.
Tatjana Schoenmaker from Tuks Swim is one of these sports stars and to avoid losing focus, she constantly keeps her big goal in mind.
Two seconds faster is the challenge that awaits the World Championship silver medallist when she when she will hopefully compete in the 200m-breaststroke during the Tokyo Olympic Games.
It is tempting to tip Schoenmaker as a possible Olympic medal contender after her 200m-breaststroke heroics of last year. She became the first South African female swimmer to medal at a long course (50m) World Championships. Another highlight was winning gold at a World Cup-event as well as the World Student Games.
Her coach at TuksSwimming, Rocco Meiring, however believes in first things first. Therefore, he does not want to contemplate as to what might or might not happen in Tokyo.
He believes that Schoenmaker’s success is due to her being able to stick to “The Plan”, which is one goal at a time. And so far she ticked three of the boxes in this plan. These was to regularly swimming times faster than the Olympic qualification A-standard (2:25.52); getting her degree and becoming financially independent.
The big goal now is to qualify for the 200m-breaststroke final during the Olympic Games. According to Meiring, nothing can be taken for granted. During last year’s World Championships the Tuks swimmer improved her best time to 2:21.79.
“The same time is not going to get her to the Olympic final. Tatjana will need to improve by nearly two seconds. That is massive. In swimming terms, we are talking about four metres,” the Tuks coach explained.
Meiring explained that Russia’s Yuliya Efimova won the 200m-breaststroke World-title swimming 2:20.17 and Annie Lazor (USA) swam 2:20.77 last year. He won’t be surprised if they are capable of swimming even faster times.
“There are other swimmers that are equally as fast. My gut feel is that whoever wants to qualify for the Olympic final will have to dip under 2:21.00. To medal might mean even quicker times,” Meiring remarked.
Most swimmers tend to swim their best times in the heats or semis. Schoenmaker swam the 2:21.79 in the semi-final at the World championship. In the final, she clocked 2:22.52. It is going to take a mind shift change to realise once you qualified for the final the real challenge awaits and you got to be faster.
One of Meiring’s concerns is Schoenmaker’s lack of international experience.
“Last year was the first time she competed at a World Championships. Before the start of the final, it was noticeable that she had a severe case of the jitters. For a moment, I was worried that she might false start. Luckily, she did not. You can’t ever coach experience as there is no way to emulate what might happen during a final. The more Tatjana get to compete in major finals, the more confident she will get about her abilities,” said Meiring.
According to Meiring, breaststroke is one of the most challenging events.
“Tatjana’s execution of her technique is going to be of cardinal importance. Breaststroke is all about perfect timing. Once you lose your rhythm, your race is over, he concluded.”
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