Tatjana Schoenmaker Ready For Return to International Action at Commonwealth Games
After opting to bypass the World Championships and focus on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, South African Tatjana Schoenmaker is set to make her return to international competition. The Olympic champion will be in action in a little more than a week, including in the 200-meter breaststroke, the event in which she won Olympic gold in Tokyo in world-record time.
Schoenmaker took some time away from the pool after the Olympics and made the decision to place her summer focus on Birmingham. She’ll be the favorite in the 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke, where her world record stands at 2:18.95. The 25-year-old is the only woman in history crack the 2:19 barrier.
“Going into the Olympics, I knew I was going to take some time off afterwards, Schoenmaker told ESPN. “It’d been a long five years. I was so excited because I was going to take a month off. Coming back, I was very excited to train, but I needed that break. I wanted to be in the pool, and then when I actually got back in the pool, that’s when I felt I needed take time off. It was a bit of a challenge. It wasn’t as easy. When I got back, it was hard to go back to putting 100% in. It’s very nice to know it was only three years to the next (Olympics) and not four or five, but it was definitely very tough.”
Schoenmaker said in her interview with ESPN that she experienced a whirlwind life after winning gold in Tokyo, where she also earned a silver medal in the 100 breaststroke. She also indicated that she experienced some down moments emotionally, a familiar refrain among Olympic athletes after reaching the pinnacle of the sport.
South Africa is particularly strong in the women’s breaststroke events, thanks to Schoenmaker, rising teenager Lara van Niekerk and Kaylene Corbett, a finalist in the 200 breaststroke in Tokyo. Schoenmaker is the reigning Commonwealth champion in the 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke.
“It’s weird because it never sinks in,” Schoenmaker said of her Olympic crown. “The only reason you realize it happened is that everything is very busy. They’re right when they say your life changes. It has been an adjustment. So you kind of slowly get used to it I guess, but it is still weird when someone has to introduce me for an interview or something and they add (Olympic gold medalist). It doesn’t sound right.”
