September 16 1952

Karen Muir, South African swimmer and physician, is born in Kimberley. On August 10 1965 — aged 12 years, 10 months, 25 days — she becomes the youngest person to break a sporting world record in any discipline, swimming the 110-yards backstroke in 1:08.7 at the National Junior Championships in Blackpool, England. Over the next five years, the “Tepid Tornado” sets 15 world records in the backstroke at 100m, 200m, 110 yards and 220 yards. She also wins 22 South African Championships and three US National Championships. Due to the sporting boycott against SA, she never has the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games. She is elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1980. Muir qualifies as a doctor at the University of the Orange Free State and practises in SA before moving to Canada as a family physician in Vanderhoof. In 2009 she is diagnosed with breast cancer and on January 19 2012 receives news that the cancer has spread. She returns to SA (to be “home”) and dies in Mossel Bay on April 1 2013