Down syndrome swimmer shows her mettle
Not satisfied with breaking the 50m butterfly African record, 2022 SA Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability, Minke Janse van Rensburg returned with another superb swim on Thursday to rewrite the history books.
Her performance at the SA National Swimming Champs to outgun fellow Fish Eagle Aquatics swimmer Kate Allwood saw her smashing the world record in a time of 38.46.
The effort in the event’s final ensured the 19-year-old added to her multiple longand short-course Down syndrome swim records.
At the same time, it brought the time she swam to break the continental record tumbling down by more than two seconds as she finished in first place.
The Garden Route Swim School athlete, based in George, continued a superb run of form which saw her clinch three golds and two silver medals at the 2nd Trisome Games in Turkey in March.
At the nationals last year, Janse van Rensburg proved her mettle as a short-distance specialist when she cut through the water in a searing 34.17 to claim a new 50m freestyle Open world record in her class.
Her father, Hennie, reflected on the momentous run and praised the athlete with disability for consistently delivering the goods.
“She has kept surprising us since starting to swim at age 11,” he said.
“A therapist had told us then that she took up the sport because she had certain attributes, one of which is her stamina.”
He said her urge to win and attention to detail were a lethal part of her arsenal.
“That attention to detail is why she keeps breaking records,” Hennie said.
“Minke holds [three] shortcourse freestyle world records
— 25m, 50m and 100m. She also holds the 50m and 100m world records in long course.”
A certain physical attribute, Hennie said, further bolstered his daughter’s prowess, making beating her a tall order for any challenger.
“At the [Trisome] Games, her style in the last three or four metres is a different style and is much faster.
“Down syndrome swimmers [usually] have stiff ankles; they don’t point their toes to the back.
“But [analysis] revealed Minke swam with her legs a little bent — almost like a beginner swimmer and her coach realised that’s what made her faster.”
Intensive coaching to swim her race employing this tactic, something new for the topranked Down syndrome swimmer in SA over an entire course, paid dividends in her preliminary and final events on Thursday.
Franna Vorster, Janse van Rensburg’s coach, said: “As a record machine in the freestyles, it was amazing to see her break the butterfly record for the first time, showing the world she’s not just a freestyle swimmer.
“We took a chance in the final because I saw [how] she went faster in the prelims.
“[The trick] was she went faster in the last few [metres], and I brought this to her attention during the warm-up, which she bought into after struggling with it for many years.
“And so, I told her, ‘We can either go for a fast time, or leave disappointed, but we have nothing to lose’. In the end, she went for it.”
Janse van Rensburg swam in the 50m backstroke multi-class final on Friday and won silver.
In the 100m freestyle multiclass prelims on Saturday morning, she broke her previous Down syndrome world record in 1:17.32 before returning to again break her record in the final. Her time of 1:16.65 saw her taking the silver medal and new records back home.
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