After 17 days in hospital during which he had to receive oxygen treatment and could not pay attention to his swimmers, the award-winning swimming coach, Rocco Meiring, was back at his post this week.

Meiring considers himself lucky and privileged to be back and do what he loves – that is to be next to the Tuks swimming pool overseeing the training of Tatjana Schoenmaker and two more Olympians as they hone their skills for the Tokyo Games.

It took Meiring more than two weeks to recover, after initially testing positive for Covid-19. A week ago he was still in the intensive care unit of a Midstream hospital receiving oxygen therapy. Meiring considers himself to be one of the lucky ones.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is real. People will be shocked if they know what is happening at our hospitals. I consider my ordeal to be a ‘Sunday school picnic’. I worry that quite a few of the people who were with me in the intensive care unit are at risk of dying,” said the Tuks swimming coach.

He emphasizes that his heart goes out to the medical staff, because they are battling to cope as they are totally overworked.

According to Meiring, one of the frightening things he experienced was being turned away at one hospital because the doctor felt he was too high risk.

“Luckily, another doctor at another hospital was prepared to make a plan. I was told to go to the hospital’s parking lot as you can’t get near the hospital. People are queuing to be helped. When I arrived, a man was sent out to come looking for me. I was taken to a storage room with a stretcher. If they did not help me that night, I might have died,” he explained.

Meiring said he started feeling ill after he was vaccinated.

“I think I might already have had Covid at the time. When I started feeling sick, I thought it is my body reaction to the vaccination. So, at first I was not worried. I tried to doctor myself. My first Covid test was negative. I only tested positive the second time around. By then, I was getting progressively sicker. At one stage, I could not breathe through my nose anymore,” he remarked.

The Tuks coach admits being worried about what impact the third wave of the pandemic might have on the Olympic athlete’s final preparation. No athlete can afford to lose a few weeks of training at this stage.

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