The Big Read: Had Charlene Wittstock been a few micro-seconds faster in the pool, her reputation as a swimmer might have overshadowed the "dumb blonde" label bestowed on her by some team-mates and sports writers.

Wittstock, who got engaged to Prince Albert of Monaco this week, enjoyed her ditzy image, which became entrenched with a classic howler at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, in Kuala Lumpur.

Chatting to Pieter Rossouw, the star Springbok winger who was there as part of the rugby sevens squad, she proceeded to ask him if he was "that pole-vaulter", referring to Okkert Brits.

Wittstock wasn't considered a contender in Malaysia, with Ryk Neethling and Brendon Dedekind being hailed as South Africa's only swimming hopes in Malaysia. The two men bagged a medal each, and Wittstock came agonisingly close to claiming another.

She was safely in third place as she cruised into the final metres of the 50m freestyle final but then made the mistake of gliding the final foot into the wall. That gave New Zealand's Toni Maree Jeffs sufficient time to steal bronze by a tenth of a second.

If that hurt, Wittstock never showed it. In public, she was always bubbly, smiling and down to earth.

She told me in an interview once that it was important to treat everyone with respect. She had already met Albert by that time - though she hadn't started going out with him - but she made it clear that she wouldn't tolerate even him talking down to people.

Wittstock practised what she preached. At a gala in 1999, she overheard a disabled swimmer, with no arms, complaining bitterly to himself. She asked what was wrong and he explained that he had just missed the qualifying time for the All Africa Games, to be held in Johannesburg the following week.

"He had the right to complain about many things, but for him his world came crashing down because he didn't make the time," she said. "It makes you realise that, too often, we complain about things that don't really matter."

In the same interview, she admitted to relishing her dumb blonde role: "Anyway, I think you have to be really clever to be a dumb blonde," pronounced Wittstock, who promptly burst into tears the next day when she saw my article in print.

It was the headline which had upset her, dubbing her "Dumb Blonde" Wittstock, combined with the team-mates calling her "Blondie" as she strolled into the athletes' village dining hall for breakfast.

But she produced one of the finest swims of her career a few days later, upstaging Egypt's US-based star Rania Elwani in the 100m freestyle final.

"I couldn't believe I'd done it," she raved straight afterwards. "I was looking at my coach and I don't think he could believe it either."

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she made no impact in her individual race but she was a member of South Africa's 4x100m medley relay team, which finished fifth. She also earned the respect of deaf medallist Terence Parkin, who said she was one of two team-mates to have become the most proficient in sign language.

I interviewed Wittstock again in early 2001 at her Durban digs, called "The White House". When I commented on the name, she replied without missing a beat: "And I'm the First Lady."

For all her easy-going exterior, Wittstock was a determined, fierce competitor. It was 18 months before the 2002 Commonwealth Games, in Manchester, UK, but she had already drawn up a training programme.

Wittstock had a blonde moment that day. Asked about a copy of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings lying around, she replied: "I wanted to read it before seeing the movie, but I didn't realise it was a trilogy and this was only the first book."

At the 2002 Games, Wittstock finished fourth again, this time by two-tenths of a second in the 100m backstroke. However, she earned her long-awaited Commonwealth medal - a silver - in the medley relay.

Injury and love ended Wittstock's career, though she briefly threatened to make a comeback in late 2006.

Wearing a Russian water polo shirt she had nicked from Albert's wardrobe, she spoke of trying to make it to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

She did make it there, but as a celebrity. That was the last time I saw her, as a spectator at Natalie du Toit's race, seated next to England's Princess Anne in the VIP section. Even so, Wittstock popped over to the adjacent media area to say hello.

There are still some journalists, from that trip in 1998, who think of her as a dumb blonde. At a golf tournament not too long ago, one reporter gleefully recounted to younger colleagues how she had mistaken Rossouw for Okkert.

An hour or so later I spotted the same journalist heartily congratulating a golfer on a good round. The man politely replied: "I'm not [he]. You've got the wrong guy."

The dumb blonde, Princess-to-be Charlene, is having the last laugh.