South Africa's Olympic champion and world record holder, Tatjana Schoenmaker, can swim faster in the 200m-breaststroke.
Rocco Meiring is the man who is making the prediction, and he should know as he is the coach.
The Tuks based swimmer amazed everyone when she won the 200m-breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2:18.95. She is the first-ever female swimmer to dip under 2:19.00. Schoenmaker has also swum the third and fourth fastest times ever during the Games.
Schoenmaker won a silver medal in the 100m-breaststroke. During the heats, she swam 1:04.82. It is one of the ten fastest times on FINA's all-time rankings.
Meiring said such statistics will always make for interesting reading. But he believes races are being won or lost in the pool. That is why he is fond of saying, "yesterday's home runs don't win tomorrow's matches".
"I will 'die' as long as I am coaching her to find ways for her to be faster. I don't have a choice. High-performance sport in the world is a moving target. The level of competition is going to continue to improve. That is why we need to be faster at the Paris Olympic Games.
"As a coach, I drew inspiration from the Kenyan athletes. So I make sure that I keep abreast of what they do. There is a lot of power in the simplicity of hard work and self-belief. And being positive instead of thinking about what you don't have."
Before the Games, Meiring played down Schoenmaker's chances to medal, but yesterday, he admitted he was not surprised by the times she swam.
"I expected her to be fast. So we did a lot of race simulation work. It meant she swam the same programs she did before the national trials in April. It allowed us to compare her times from April to just before the Olympics. She was faster, but not me, or she spoke about it.
"We knew it was about whether on the day she could put it all together, and she did."
TuksSport's swimming head coach praised Schoenmaker for her perseverance in the buildup to the Olympic Games.
"I have coached for 33 years. I don't think I have ever put anybody through 'hell' like I did with Tatjana. The past five years have been absolute hell for her. I have witnessed that. There were many days I felt terrible for what I'd be doing to her. But swimming is a demanding sport.
"With regards to Tatjana, I must say that you can coach somebody up to a certain point, but that is it. Tatjana has been blessed with exceptional abilities and talent. Above she can handle pressure. If I had to choose anyone to go to war with I will pick her first because when the chips are down, she delivers."
Meiring said it was important for Schoenmaker to do what she did as young swimmers need to realise that it is possible to become an Olympic champion training in South Africa.
Still, Meiring refuses to take any credit for what happened at the Tokyo Olympics.
"I was lucky to be part of a TuksSport team whose only goal was to help Tatjana become an Olympic champion."
Virtual Campus
Get Social With Us
Download the UP Mobile App