Tatjana Smith returns to action as she bids to defend her Olympic 200m title

Tatjana Smith begins the defence of her Olympic 200m breaststroke crown in Paris on Wednesday morning, having confirmed her status as favourite after her gold in the 100m on Monday.

She is already the first South African to win gold medals at two different Games in real time, but she would also be the first to defend a title successfully, also in real time, if she wins the 200m in France (Caster Semenya has 800m gold medals from London 2012 and Rio 2016, but the first one was upgraded from silver only after she had won in Brazil). 

Smith’s Tuks teammate Kaylene Corbett, who swam with her in the 200m finals at Tokyo 2020, the 2019 world championships and both the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games, even sharing the podium in Birmingham two years ago, will line up alongside the superstar once again.

And Pieter Coetzé dives into the heats of the 200m backstroke, where he will try finish higher than the impressive fifth spot he managed in the 100m race. 

With the swimmers’ finals scheduled for Thursday, Team South Africa will be looking at triathletes Henri Schoeman and Jamie Riddle for potential silverware — assuming it goes ahead.

The event was postponed from Tuesday because the water quality of the Seine was too poor.

The men are set to race at 10.45am with the women scheduled to start at 8am as originally planned. Vicky van der Merwe is the nation’s only entrant there. 

Rowers John Smith and Chris Baxter will show how strong they are when they compete in the men’s pair semifinals at 10.34am.

They go up against reigning world champions Switzerland and the US, who finished one spot ahead of them at the world championships in Belgrade last year.

Also in their race are Spain, who beat them at the at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne earlier this year.

The top three boats will qualify for the A final.

In Team SA action on Tuesday, the women’s rugby sevens side won their first match of the tournament, beating Fiji 21-15 to finish 11th.

Rower Paige Badenhorst ended fourth in her single sculls quarterfinal, which saw her slip into the C-D final category.

“I’m disappointed not to have made the A-B semifinals. I came into the Games not really knowing how I compared to the other athletes,” said Paige.

“I had an idea that I’d like to be in the top 16, the top half of the pack. After the heats I definitely felt a bit more confident in my chances ... but the goal to be top-16 is still alive. Tomorrow I race the C-D semifinals.”

The men’s hockey team were beaten 5-1 by Germany, and swimmer Matthew Sates failed to advance beyond the 200 butterfly heats.

Vincent Leygonie ended last in the BMX freestyle qualifying round.