If ever there was a time for swimmers to make sports history, it is 2024, as, for the first time, it is possible to win a world championship and Olympic medal in the same year.

The 2024 World Aquatics Championships are scheduled to take place in February in Doha, while the Paris 2024 Olympic Games start in July. In the history of competitive swimming, the two events have never occurred in the same year. Ironically, it is a leap year.

Tatjana Smith (Schoenmaker) is the South African swimmer capable of achieving this unique feat. She has "BMT" (big match temperament). Or, to put it another way, when the going gets tough, Smith gets going. Her results are proof. Since 2018, she has medaled at every major event she has competed in.

Her medal heroics include winning gold during the Tokyo Olympic Games, the 2022 World Championships, the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games, and the 2019 World University Games. She also set a world record during the Tokyo Games. Last year, she became the first South African female swimmer to win a world-long course swimming title.

It is incredible how Smith is capable of stepping up. In December last year, a mere few weeks after getting married, she won the 200-metre breaststroke during the World Aquatics Championships trials in Durban in a time of 2:20.30. It is her fastest time since breaking the world record to claim Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021. Her time was the third-fastest last year. Only Russia's Eugenia Chikunova was faster. The Russians set a world record, swimming 2:17.55. Chikunova also clocked a time of 2:19.71.

Afterwards, Smith admitted to having surprised herself. Saying, "Sometimes, you feel good, and the results aren't the same. I'm just glad that the results and how I felt matched."

Smith's coach, Rocco Meiring, is a forever realist and not one to get ahead of himself. In an earlier interview, he emphasised that no swimming race had ever been won by speculating what could happen. So, it is not fair to speculate as to what Smith might achieve at the World Championships or the Games. According to Meiring, all her breakthrough moments have been achieved through hard work. Hours and hours of swimming.

Meiring firmly believes any swimmer is only as good as their last race. That is why Schoenmaker's golden heroics at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the 2023 World Championships count for nothing.

"It has been a while since the rivalry in the women's 100 and 200-metre breaststroke has been this intense. Only two swimmers who swam in the 2020 Games 200-meter breaststroke final were in action during last year's World Champs final in Japan. They were Tatjana and Lilly King (USA)."

The Tuks swimmers who will be competing next month in Doha are Emma Chelius, Dune Coetzee, Kaylene Corbett, Erin Gallagher, Stephanie Houtman, Hannah Pearse, Tayla Jonker, Pieter Coetze, Clayton Jimmie, and Matthew Randle.

The Tuks open-water swimmers include Ruan Breytenbach, Connor Albertyn, Henre Louw, Rossouw Venter, Callan Lotter, Amica de Jager, and Tory Earle.

The Tuks water polo players who will represent the South African national men’s and women’s teams are Nardus Badenhorst (alumni), Janco Rademeyer (non-travelling reserve), Esihle Zondo, Shakira January and Nicola McLeod (alumna).