First there was Penny Heyns. Then Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett and now the newest star on the horizon – 19-year-old Lara van Niekerk. What is it about all these South African women swimmers who perform so well in breaststroke?

“I honestly think it’s because we as South Africans are such strong girls. You know, breaststroke is one of the more difficult techniques to learn and it takes a lot of strength to excel at it,” Van Niekerk said without hesitation when the question is put to her.

Two weeks ago, Lara an Niekerk was honoured with three accolades at the G-Sport awards event, including Sportswoman of the Year and the “Global Women in Sport award”. Rekord recently visited this rising superstar to talk about her remarkable rise as a swimmer over the past year.

When the South African national swimming championships were held in Port Elizabeth earlier this year, Schoenmaker and her achievements at last year’s Olympic Games were still fresh in everyone’s mind and swimming enthusiasts wanted to see her in action again on home soil.

But then an 18-year-old (she did not turn 19 until the following month) stole Schoenmaker’s thunder by beating her in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke. This was Lara van Niekerk, at that time still a little-known schoolgirl from Pretoria.

To top it all off, Van Niekerk also set a new national, African and Commonwealth record in the 50m breaststroke at this championship.

Two months ago, at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, she beat Schoenmaker again in the 100m breaststroke and won gold for South Africa, two days after she also won gold in the 50m breaststroke.

Van Niekerk’s swimming career began at the age of eight when she started swimming as a primary school girl at Laerskool Constantia Park because her older sister and brother were also swimmers.

However, it soon became clear that she was the one with the swimming talent when, at the age of twelve, she set her first SA record in the 50m breaststroke.

At that point, she already had a string of provincial records to her name as a junior. In 2017 she took it one step further and returned from the Junior African Championship in Egypt with four gold and one silver medal.

However, it was in 2018 that Van Niekerk introduced herself to the world at the age of 15 as a future superstar. She took part in the senior African Championship that year and returned from Algeria with four gold medals.

After the disruptions of Covid in 2020 and 2021, she came back with a bang at the end of last year, when she set two new South African and African records in the 50m breaststroke at the National Short Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg. With the second record of 29.85 seconds in the final, she became the first South African woman ever to swim this event in less than 30 seconds.

In the meantime, she improved this record to 29.62 seconds at the South African Short Course swimming championship in Pietermaritzburg two months ago.

During Rekord’s conversation with Van Niekerk, her foot was in plaster, but she soon explained that it was nothing serious. Just a small operation to correct an Os Trigonum (extra bone that sometimes develops behind the ankle bone) case.

In the meantime, she has already started training hard for the World Short Course championship, which will take place in December in Melbourne, Australia.

So, what do Lara van Niekerks’ plans and dreams for the future look like?

Due to the pressure of her swimming schedule, this former pupil of Hoërskool Garsfontein decided to switch to home-schooling to have more time for her matric year. So, these studies and exams also lies ahead now.

Then, obviously, she dreams of as many medals and records as possible at every local and international event in which she participates. But she believes her chance for true glory will come at the Olympic Games of 2024. There she wants to win at least two gold medals for South Africa, if all goes well.

Her long-term planning includes a degree in Financial Science at Tuks and a career in the financial sector. She will start studying at Tuks next year.

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