Joan relives golden moment

East London’s iconic Olympic swimmer turns 80

ICONIC East London swimmer, Joan Breetzke (nee Harrison) turned 80 last month and the legendary athlete’s legacy still lives on.

Breetzke became the first South African swimmer to claim a gold medal at the Olympic Games at just 16 years old, and enjoyed a short, but fruitful career, during which she won a number of titles, before retiring at the age of 20.

Swimming in East London has produced a few impressive athletes over the years and Breetzke notes there were always talented swimmers coming through the ranks.

“I think the swimming scene in East London is very good, very positive, but it is very hard to get to the top in swimming.” she noted.

“You have to work and train extremely hard, but there are always promising swimmers here and it is up to us to encourage them.

“Times count, you have to prove yourself, but I think the coaches are doing as well as they can.”

Due to her massive achievements back in the 1950s, East London named their premier swimming complex after the swimmer.

“It is an honour to have the complex named after me, I think most people know it as just a swimming pool, they don’t know me any more.

“When my grandchildren say, we are going to the Joan, it doesn’t really mean much to them.”

Although the running of the pool has had its ups and downs over the years, Breetzke believes it is a high class centre.

“There are always problems and people complain sometimes like with everything but I think they do a good job of maintaining the pool and keeping it at a good standard.

“I think it is the best venue in the country for an aquatics festival.

“There was talk about covering the main pool and heating it up, but funding is always a problem.”

Swimming in the country as a whole is currently in a strong place, but to compete among the world’s powerhouses much still needs to be done according to Breetzke.

“I think to compete with countries like Australia and America we need a lot more funding, but we have done very well with what we have.”

Looking back on her amazing, but short-lived career, Breetzke has always stayed humble and never really enjoyed the spotlight.

In her early years of competing she was only known locally until her international exploits catapulted her into the country’s eye.

“The Daily Dispatch used to call me ‘our Joan’.

“At one stage when I first started I was called the Daily Dispatch Champion, until I did something internationally and then the rest of the country sort of claimed me.”

Her major accolades over her career were her gold medal in the 1952 Olympics 100m backstroke; a first in the 1950 British Empire Games 400m freestyle, first in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 100m backstroke, first in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 4×100m freestyle, a second in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 3×100m medley, third in the 1950 British Empire Games 100m freestyle and a third in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 100m freestyle.

Her Olympic triumph was by far the biggest and it took another 44 years for another South African woman swimmer, Penny Heynes, to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

It has been 63 years since that historic day and Breetzke still remembers parts of it.

“I remember some of that day, I remember sprinting towards the end of the race and I remember South Africans running down from the grandstands in excitement after I won.”

She was not expected to win the final that day. A swimmer from Holland, Geertje Wielema, had been considered the favourite to take gold.

However, her coach, Alex Bulley, fully knew what she was capable of and believed she could do it.

“It was a very tense race, I had done the 400m freestyle in the morning, so had rested up before the 100m final at 5pm.

“My coach thought I could do it, I suppose everybody hopes to win, but I did not expect it, I just did my best and won.”

Despite the attention and media interest after her exploits, she did not enjoy the limelight.

“I have never really enjoyed publicity, but I was in the public eye after my success. I rode in an open top car and stood on the balcony of city hall, but it wasn’t really my scene.”

Breetzke married in 1956 and shortly after decided her time of professional swimming was up.

“I was chosen to go to the Olympics in Melbourne in ’56, but I withdrew because I had had enough.”

In all Breetzke enjoyed a fantastic career. She received the Helms Award for the best performance on the African continent in 1952 for her Olympic exploits, was inducted into the South African Sports Hall of Fame in 1978 and then was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1982.