The rapid rise of Lara van Niekerk has put SA swimming in the unique position of being able to aim at cleaning up gold in all three women’s breaststroke events at the Commonwealth Games this year.
The Amazonian matric pupil became the first South African to dip under 30 seconds in the 50m breaststroke in Pretoria shortly before Christmas, breaking the continental mark held by Tatjana Schoenmaker, the 100m and 200m champion at Gold Coast 2018.
Van Niekerk had already broken the 30-second barrier a few months before in the short-course pool, where lengths are 25m, but doing it in an Olympic-sized pool is a serious business.
And then consider that her 29.88 sec mark ranks her as the seventh fastest of all time. It seeds her third among active swimmers ahead of the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in May and No 1 in the Commonwealth ahead of the multi-sport showpiece that kicks off in Birmingham, England, on July 28.
For SA to have one top breaststroker in Schoenmaker is one thing, but then there’s also Kaylene Corbett, who ended fifth in the 200m breaststroke at the Olympics, and now Van Niekerk.
Schoenmaker, the Olympic 200m gold medallist and runner-up in the 100m, averages six strokes per 25m at full speed, said coach Eugene da Ponte.
Van Niekerk hammers out three strokes more over the same distance.
“She basically does exactly the opposite to what Tatjana and Kaylene would do where they’ve got a long glide stroke, she’s got a very high-tempo stroke where she’s very high on the water,” said Da Ponte.
“Her stroke is something that we’ve developed and it’s made up of [Americans] Amanda Beard, Rebecca Soni and [Australian] Sam Riley.
“It’s bits and pieces of their strokes and there’s a little bit of Penny [Heyns] in there. Penny was one of the first ones to start using her head for a lot of momentum ... and that’s become more prevalent.”
But Van Niekerk also brings her own unique ingredient.
“She’s got a strong, very fast, narrow kick which is something everyone’s been moving towards the last 10 years because of Adam Peaty [the men’s 50m and 100m breaststroke world record-holder].
“It’s something she’s just naturally had since she was a young kid. She’s very flexible, she’s double-jointed in her hips and her knees.”
She is able to pull her heels up to almost her hips without moving her legs to the sides, which causes resistance.
And yet it wasn’t this quirk of nature that got Van Niekerk into this event, but rather her desire to chase sister Joa, older by four years.
“I’ve always been a breaststroker because I chased my sister in the pool when I was smaller,” she said with a smile.
Joa happened to do breaststroke and Da Ponte just happened to have a group of good breaststrokers at the time, which included nine junior national medallists.
“She was the baby of the bunch so she just used to chase all of them all the time in training and I think that’s one of the biggest reasons for her being competitive. She was never scared of the older kids then even.”
But Van Niekerk points out that her desire to win exists outside the pool as well. She has built up a reputation already when it comes to endeavours like canasta and Rummikub with financial adviser father Patrick, businesswoman-cum-housewife mom Hanalie, Joa and brother Zander, who is two years older.
My family hates playing games with me because I’m the worst loser
— Lara van Niekerk
“My family hates playing games with me because I’m the worst loser,” she said with a laugh.
Van Niekerk has high standards. In early 2021, having decided to try to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, she switched to homeschooling and split her matric over two years because she was struggling to cope with schoolwork and the training load.
“I wasn’t happy with anything lower than an A,” said Van Niekerk, who one day plans to follow her father into a career of finance.
She was disappointed after travel restrictions last month prevented her from getting to the world short course championships, which would have been her first senior international gala.
But this year will offer plenty of chances for SA’s newest starlet.
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