Swimming South Africa

The South African Amateur Swimming Union was formed in 1908 from various Clubs throughout the Country.

South Africa was accepted as a member of FINA in 1909.

There were no Provincial bodies at this time and records do not reflect the number of Clubs that constituted the Union. It is generally believed to be approximately 15 Clubs.

The first swimmer to represent South Africa at an Olympic Games was G.A. Godfrey at the 1912 Games in Stockholm. Swimmers represented South Africa again in 1920 and at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam the Ladies 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Team won the Bronze medal The team members were Kathleen Russell, Rhoda Rennie, Marie Bedford and Frederica Van Der Goes.

In 1930 the first Empire Games were held in Hamilton, Canada and Miss Onagh Whitsett of South Africa won the Gold Medal in the Ladies Springboard Diving.

In 1932 at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles Jennie Maakal won the bronze Medal in the Ladies 400m Freestyle.

South Africa was represented at the 1934 Empire Games in London, the 1938 Empire Games in Sydney, the 1948 Olympic Games in London. At the Empire Games in Auckland in 1950 Gold medals were won by Graham Johnston, Mens 1650 yds. Freestyle - Jacobus Wiid mens 110 yds Backstroke and Joan Harrison ladies 440 yds Freestyle and bronze in the ladies 110 yds backstroke.

At the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki Joan Harrison won the Gold medal in the Ladies 100m Backstroke.

Again, Gold medals were won at the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver by Graham Johnston, men’s 1650 yds Freestyle, - Joan Harrison, ladies 110 yds Backstroke and the South African Ladies 4 x 110 yds Freestyle Relay team and at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne the Ladies Relay team took the bronze medal in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay. The team was Jeanette Myburgh, Natalie Myburgh, Susan Roberts and Moira Abernathy.

The 1960 Olympic Games in Rome was the last Games that South Africans competed in until 1992 when they were readmitted and competed in the Games in Barcelona.

In 1961 South Africa became a Republic and was no longer a member of the Commonwealth, FINA also suspended SASSU as a member with the result that South Africa was unable to compete in any International competition. South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth in 1994 and took part in the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada in 1994.

In 1965 Karen Muir became the youngest person in the world to break a World record in any sport and that record still stands today. At the British Championships in Blackpool, she broke the World Record for the Women’s 110 yds Backstroke at the age of 12 and between 1965 and 1970 she went on to break 15 World Records in the 110 and 220 yds backstroke as well as the 100m and 200m backstroke.

In 1966 Ann Fairlie broke 3 World Records, 2 in the ladies 110 yds backstroke and 1 in the ladies 100m backstroke.

In 1976 Jonty Skinner broke the World Record for the men’s 100m Freestyle and in 1988 Peter Williams broke the World Record in the men’s 50m Freestyle. Both Skinners' and Williams' records were not officially recognised as South Africa was not a member of FINA.

In 1991 SAASU held Unity talks with SASCO (South African Swimming Congress) and ASASA ( Amateur Swimming Association of South Africa.) Unity was achieved with SASCO and the new body SAASA (South African Amateur Swimming Association ) was accepted by FINA in 1992. In 1994 the Federation again changed its name to Swimming South Africa (SSA).

In 1995 South Africa competed in the All Africa Games for the first time and South African swimmers won a total of 26 Gold 22. Silver and 6 Bronze medals and broke 6 South African & African Records. A bronze medal was also won in the men’s 3m Diving.

In March 1996 Penny Heyns broke the World Record for the ladies 100m Breaststroke at the SA National Championships in Durban.

At the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta Penny Heyns again broke the World Record in the women’s 100m Breaststroke and won the Gold Medal in both the women’s 100m and 200m breaststroke. In doing so she also broke the Olympic Record in the Women’s 100m and 200m Freestyle.

Marianne Kriel won the bronze medal in the women’s 100 Backstroke breaking the Africa and South African records.

At the beginning of 1998 SSA appointed Mr. Rocco Meiring as the fulltime National Director of Coaching and Development. This position was created as a result of a growing need to structure Coaches education and introduce some form of Coaching accreditation system. The National Coaching Director would also be involved in the structuring of a squad system for swimming to ensure that all available talent was identified and their progress monitored.

In August 1998 the first ever National Coaches conference was held in Bloemfontein and was attended by 120 swim coaches and teachers. After many attempts at uniting the coaching fraternity within South Africa a new coaching body was formed, the Professional Swim Coaches Association, under the chairmanship of Wayne Riddin.

During the Goodwill Games held in New York in July 1998 Penny Heyns became the first World Record holder in the 50m Breaststroke in a time of 30.95. Previously this distance had not been recognised by FINA for official World Records only previous best times were recorded. The previous best time recorded for this event was by Silke Horner of the GDR in a time of 31.58.

In September 1998 SSA and ASASA again opened talks with a view to merging the two organisations to form one unified Swimming organisation in South Africa. A six month co-operation phase was agreed upon and in March 1999 the situation was reviewed and both parties agreed to merge into one organisation at the end of June 1999. This occasion marked the end of a long struggle in swimming and the beginning of a new future for all within the Aquatic Sports of South Africa.

September 1998 saw the major sponsor of SSA, ABSA Trust, taking the decision to withdraw their sponsorship from Swimming South Africa in order to consolidate their sponsorship in other areas. Fortunately for SSA, TELKOM were prepared to take over this sponsorship and in addition to sponsor the SSA Learn to Swim programme.

At the 1999 Annual General Meeting application for the formation of a new Provincial Association, Northern Province Swimming, was approved. This Province will have its base in Pietersburg and cater for clubs operating in the Northern Province.

The Provincial Associations now number 14 made up of 156 Clubs and 8600 Members. At the Janet Evans Invitation Meet held in Los Angeles in July 1999 Penny Hens set up a new World Record in the heats of the 200m Breaststroke in a time of 2:24.69 breaking Rebecca Brown of Australia’s record set up in 1994 by .07secs.

Heyns went on to break the World record again in the Final in a time of 2:24.51. The following day Heyns broke her own world record in the preliminaries of the 100m Breaststroke in a time of 1:06.99 and went on later that day in the final to again set up a new World mark in a time of 1:06.95. Heyns becomes the first person in the World to hold simultaneous World Records over these 3 distances in the Breaststroke. At the same meet Roland Schoeman won the Gold Medal in the 50m Freestyle in a time of 22.04 secs. This was the fastest recorded time since the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and the 4th fastest time ever recorded. This time shot Roland from 25th to No.1 in the World Rankings in the 50m Freestyle.

At the 1999 Pan Pacific Championships held in Sydney Penny Heyns again set up new World Records in the 50m, 100m and 200m (twice) becoming the first swimmer in history to break five World Records in five consecutive swims. In total Heyns set up 8 New World Records in 11 consecutive swims. In all the SA team to the Pan Pacific Championships came away with 3 World Records 20 African Records and 22 South African Records. On the Medal table they were fourth behind Australia, USA and Canada with Heyns 2 Gold, Dedekind 1 Gold, Neethling 1 Silver and 2 Bronze, Poewe 1 Bronze and Parkin 1 Bronze.

At the SA National Short Courses Championships (25m) held at Ellis Park at the beginning of September, Penny Heyns established two new World records over the shorter distance In the 100m Breaststroke she broke the long standing record of Samantha Riley in a time of 1:05.57 and in the 200M Breaststroke established a new World Record in a time of 2:24.42

The 7th All Africa Games were held in Johannesburg from 10 – 19th September 1999. 18 African Countries entered for the Swimming events with a total entry of 123 swimmers. The South African Team performed extremely well and managed to win 30 of the 32 Gold Medals on offer. In all they took a total of 30 Gold, 20 Silver and 3 Bonze medals.

At the Seagulls Annual Winter Championships (25m) held in Durban from 24-26 September Heyns was again on form breaking her own World Record set up the previous week in the 100m Breaststroke where she set a time of 1:05.40 and established a new World Record (25m) in the 50m Breaststroke in a time of 30.6 secs

On the 11th November 1999 SSA, together with presenting sponsor TELKOM and supporting sponsor SPEEDO, launched the National Learn-to Swim campaign in Johannesburg. LTS representatives have been appointed in the 6 major metropolitan regions and courses to train new LTS teachers are to be run on a regular basis. The aim of the Learn-to-swim campaign is to reduce the number of drownings in South Africa, by giving all citizens the opportunity to learn to swim. This National launch was followed by a Provincial launch in each of the 6 Regions.