Tatjana Smith ends retirement to chase LA 2028 and new 50m sprint
Tatjana Smith is racing again. South Africa's most decorated Olympian has come out of retirement at 29 with the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games as her target. BBC
Smith owns four Olympic medals across two Games. At Tokyo 2020 she won gold in the 200m breaststroke and silver in the 100m breaststroke. At Paris 2024 she reversed that order, taking gold over 100m and silver over 200m. She is a double Olympic champion and a former world record holder in the 200m breaststroke.
She walked away at the top. Her retirement followed that 200m silver-medal swim in Paris, announced on the Thursday night of the final. Two years on, she said she was "missing the water" and described the return as feeling "a little crazy, a little scary and very exciting all at once".
She is setting no guarantees. "LA 2028 is the goal. It is not a promise. I still have to build a race, qualify and earn my place back on those blocks." That honesty matters. Olympic selection is not gifted on past medals. She must post the time and finish high enough when it counts.
Her comeback starts close to home. Smith is due to return to competition at the South African Short Course championships, swum in a 25-metre pool where turns come quickly and underwater work carries extra weight. That meet runs from 24-27 September, according to Swimming World, and entry lists have her down for multiple events. The Citizen
Los Angeles offers something new. Smith is aiming at the 50m, a single explosive length of the pool, as a new Olympic distance. Reuters The 50m breaststroke is a different test from the 100m and 200m. There is no room to build into the swim. Start, power, timing at the wall.
For fans, this means a waiting game. A short-course national meet in September is about racing sharpness, not Olympic qualification. The real test comes later in the long-course season, in the 50-metre pool used at the Olympics, where South Africa's trials will decide who goes to Los Angeles. At 29, Smith is returning against younger sprinters and against the clock itself.
