Olympic hopefuls ready to deliver bests in Doha
Pieter Coetzé dives into the unseasonal world championships in Doha this week in his new role as a professional swimmer, seeking to achieve personal best times.
The 19-year-old backstroke star is at the helm of a largely young South African squad looking to establish themselves as the Paris Olympics loom a little more than five months down the line.
Breaststroke queen Tatjana Schoenmaker, who won the country’s only medals at last year’s world championships in Fukuoka, is sitting out this gala — staged in a Games year for the first time — along with several other international names.
Coetzé, the Commonwealth Games 100m and 2022 world junior 200m champion, turned down a swimming scholarship at the prestigious University of California in Berkeley to join the paid ranks, opting to stay in Pretoria, where he shares a townhouse with friend and training partner Matthew Sates — another young gun in the national outfit.
“I’ve decided to stay and go professional, instead of being in the college system. I’m not going to study for now. I’m focusing on swimming,” Coetzé, who is based at Tuks like most of the squad, told the Sunday Times.
“The main thing for me was (that) my dream has been to be a professional swimmer, and you can’t do that in the college system. You have to be amateur. I always have the option of studying because I finished school last year, even though I didn’t want to. My parents motivated me to finish.”
Coetzé also sought advice from Sates, who went to the US for a few months in 2022, winning an NCAA crown before returning home prematurely.
“My advice was actually to go there like I did for a season and see how it is. But ja, obviously I came back,” said Sates, who struggled having to peak at three big college galas and then the national championships, all in a short space of time.
“I think the college lifestyle isn’t one that really suits me because there will be a lot of parties,” added Coetzé. “They swim in yards.
They don’t swim in long-course metres, which is where I want to perform… I just don’t see the point in that.”
While Cal’s Golden Bears have produced a string of Olympic swimming medallists over the years, most recently backstroker Ryan Murphy, all of South Africa’s pool medallists since 2012 have been homegrown, including veteran Chad Le Clos, who races in the 50m butterfly today.
The decision by Coetzé to compete at these world championships meant sacrificing an annual family holiday on the West Coast. “We kind of trained through. We had the day before Christmas off, Christmas and the day after.”
The friendship between Coetzé and Sates centres on their swimming goals and fun, like playing Fifa — they took the Xbox to Doha — as well as socialising with other swimmers, some of whom they meet regularly for what they call the breakfast club.
And there’s also the banter. “I normally win [at Fifa],” Coetzé said.
“I wouldn’t say all the time,” countered Sates, who pointed out that he was still the individual medley king, despite Coetzé’s desire to take up the event one day. He turned to Coetzé and cheekily asked how their 100m IM sets had gone in training. “I was just chilling,” retorted Coetzé.
Coetzé will compete in all three backstroke distances — 50m, 100m and 200m — while Sates has entered the 200m freestyle, 100m and 200m butterfly and 200m and 400m IM.
Also in action is double Commonwealth Games breaststroke champion Lara van Niekerk, who won a bronze at the 2022 world championships in the non-Olympic 50m breaststroke.
But she had a poor 2023, during which she contracted glandular fever and tick bite fever as well as other blood infections that hampered her training.
“That’s why this gala is so important for me, is just to see that I am moving in the right direction again after having a difficult year last year.”
All three are also looking to help the medley relay teams qualify for Paris.