Schoenmaker can go even faster, says coach Rocco

TATJANA Schoenmaker has just won an Olympic gold medal and set a new world record in the 200m breaststroke, but her coach Rocco Meiring believes she can go even faster leading up to the 2024 Games in Paris.

The 24-year-old broke the 2min 19.11sec mark set by Rikke Moller Pedersen of Denmark in 2013 by becoming the first woman to breach the 2:19 barrier to clinch the Tokyo Olympics title with an astonishing time of 2:18.95 last Friday.

Schoenmaker nearly emulated compatriot Penny Heyns’ double from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but had to be satisfied with a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke event, where she finished second to American teenager Lydia Jacoby in the final in 1:05.22, having already produced an Olympic record 1:04.82 in the heat.

The Tuks Sport swimmer received a special welcome from family and friends at OR Tambo International Airport on Monday, as well as Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa and Sascoc officials.

While Schoenmaker said that her achievement has not sunk in yet, her coach Meiring is already thinking about the next challenge.

“She can go faster. I will die – as long as she is with me – to try and make her faster. I expected her to be fast,” Meiring said.

“We do a lot of race simulation work. She was swimming the same programmes that she did (at the Olympics) before the national trials, so she could compare and we could compare where she was, compared to four months ago.

“She was faster – she saw it, I saw it. We never spoke about it because we know it. It was about on the day, whether she could put it all together, and she did.”

Schoenmaker said she was going to spend the next few days taking it all in and having a look at all the messages on her phone, but that competitive spirit still came through.

“It’s (the Tokyo Olympics) over now, and now we have to focus for 2024. I obviously want to go faster one day, but it is a challenging time just to break that world record. I think it was standing from 2013, so it was a tough time to break,” she said.

“If I can just get close to those times again for a bit, and just be constant on those times, I would be happy. Hopefully later in my career, if I can drop some time, it would be amazing.”

Meiring added that the preparations for Tokyo was

“five years of absolute hell” for Schoenmaker, and acknowledged that some things may change now that she is an Olympic champion.

But he will still continue plugging away at his job – to make Schoenmaker swim even quicker.

“I don’t know how her life is going to change. It’s my first time as well (coaching an Olympic champion), so it’s not as if I’ve done it before. I would expect her life to change in a certain way. But we have to remember the principles and the foundations that brought us to this point, and I’m sure Tatjana will stick to them,” Meiring said.

“Going forward, she’s got to now take a breather. It’s been a very, very hard slog to get here. But not too long, and then she’s got to get back on the horse – yesterday’s home runs don’t win tomorrow’s matches, so we’ve got to start working for the next campaign.

“I was obviously very glad and very relieved in the moment, but it didn’t take long and I was starting to worry about the next campaign and what I’m going to have to do to make her faster.”