Annette Cowley’s Pretoria-based daughter is heading to Commonwealth Games 40 years after her mother was kicked out
Forty years after Annette Cowley was denied the privilege of participating as a swimmer at the Commonwealth Games due to politics, her twin daughters are part of the SA team for the 2026 Games in Glasgow.
Almost exactly 40 years ago, Annette Cowley was told she would not be allowed to compete in the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games.
One front-page headline in the British newspaper read, “No Go – Annette Cowley is left high and dry by swimming vote”.
But now, 40 years later, things will come a full circle when she watches her daughters compete at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (23 July – 2 August). Her twin daughters, Georgia and Olivia Nel, have both been selected for the South African team.
Georgia Nel, who is now based at Tuks in Pretoria, will compete in the 200m freestyle as her mom had hoped to do in 1986. She will also swim the 4x200m and 4x100m relays. Nel backs the South African relay team to medal in the longer event.
“My goal for the 200 metres freestyle is to swim a personal best. If I do, I might also qualify for the final. My back-end speed is my strong point over 200 metres. At the moment, at Tuks ‘Coach’ Rocco Meiring has me working on my top-end speed and underwater technique. What is nice is that most days I train next to Pieter Coetzé, who is a three-time medallist at the 2022 Games. He is a perfect pace setter for me,” she explained.
According to Nel, their mom never pushed them to take up swimming.
“Olivia and I actually started out playing water polo and only swam once or twice a week to improve our fitness. Olivia got into swimming a bit before I did. When she started to win a lot of medals, it was really cool, so I took up swimming as well,” she elaborated.
Olivia still remember the moment she decided that swimming is what she want to do.
“It was at my first gala. I won six medals on the day. Compare that to water polo, where you play for a whole weekend to win one trophy. What I love about swimming is that you get to push your body to its limits. There is never an easy day when training,” she remarked.
Photo: Supplied
She said her mom never really spoke about her own swimming exploits.
“So it was weird when people came up to me and said, ‘your mom’s, Annette Cowley. I used to idolise her,” she noted with amusement.
During the height of apartheid in South Africa, Annette Cowley qualified for British citizenship in 1985. In 1986, at the British national swimming championships, she qualified to compete in the 100 and 200 metre freestyle at the Edinburgh Games.
The website, Swimhistory, reports, that Cowley was selected, but then the anti-South African lobby threatened to boycott the Games if she and runner Zola Budd were allowed to compete in the Games. The matter went all the way to the British High Court, which ruled against the two South African athletes. Cowley, already installed in the athlete’s village, was forced to leave and later sit and watch the swimming from the stands.
When 16-year-old Cowley (1982) set a new SA record in the 200 m freestyle heats. She was also crowned champion. In 1983, she went on to win six events at nationals. After swimming nationals, she found time to compete in the South African still water life-saving championships, where she was awarded Springbok colours after setting a new world record in the 200m obstacle race.
Almost a decade later Cowley just missed out on representing South Africa at the 1992 Olympic Games.
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