The swimming world now has Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Current Olympic champion and former world record holder Tatiana Schoenmaker She will race under her new surname for the first time at this week's South African Championships after marrying a sports agent. Joel Smith in November.
The two announced their relationship early last year and got engaged in April. Seven months later, Schoenmaker and Smith were married at Pat Bush Mountain Reserve in Robertson, South Africa, a few hours from Cape Town.
Joel Smith is the South African rugby star's brother-in-law Siya Kolisicurrently serves as captain of the national team, becoming the first black man to hold that position in 2018. Smith's sister Rachel married Kolisi in 2016.
Schoenmaker is aiming to qualify for a second Olympic Games at the South African Championships in Gkebela next week. A few years ago at the Tokyo Games, she broke her world record in the 200m breaststroke (2:18.95) and also won a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke (1:05.22).Her world standard of 200 breasts was maintained for almost two years longer than the Russian teenager Evgenia Chikunova Last April, he lowered that to 2 minutes 17.55 seconds.
At last summer's Fukuoka Games, Schoenmaker won the 200 breast in 2:20.80, becoming the first South African woman to win a world title. She showed a bouncing performance after missing the 2022 World Championships.
At the 2024 World Championship Trials in December – just over a month after saying “I do it” – the 26-year-old ran a 200m chest time of 2:20.30, her first time since the Tokyo Olympics. Recorded. Schoenmaker ultimately withdrew from the 2024 World Championship.
“I feel good,” she said in December. “Even if you feel good, sometimes the results aren’t the same, so I’m glad that the results match how I feel.”
