Compiled by Dylan Bettencourt
- Four-time Olympic medallist Tatjana Smith is returning to competition after retiring following the 2024 Paris Games.
- Smith will focus on the 50m breaststroke, which makes its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Tatjana Smith is back in the pool and has the 2028 Olympic Games in her sights.
The four-time Olympic medallist retired after the 2024 Paris Games but is preparing to race again at the SA Short Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg.
According to The Citizen, the 29-year-old has entered the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events at the championships starting on Thursday.
But her long-term focus is the 50m breaststroke.
The event will be included at the Olympics for the first time in Los Angeles in 2028.
Smith won two gold and two silver Olympic medals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke between 2021 and 2024.
Now she wants to test herself over one length of the pool.
“The 50m is different. One length, no turn, no room to settle,” Smith said. “Everything happens now, and it scares me but it also excites me.”
Smith and fellow swimmer Chad le Clos are South Africa’s most decorated Olympians with four medals each.
Another medal in Los Angeles would make Smith the first South African to reach five Olympic podiums.
But she says qualifying is far from guaranteed.
“LA 2028 is the goal. It is not a promise,” she said. “I still have to build a race, qualify and earn my spot back on those blocks.”
Smith has moved from Pretoria to Stellenbosch and is now working with a new coach.
She said she does not know where the comeback will lead.
“I don’t know how the story ends but I know I want to find out,” Smith said. “I’m back.”
Pictured above: Tatjana Smith.
Image source: File
