After stepping away following Paris 2024, the four-time Olympic medallist has found a new reason to return to competitive swimming.
South Africa (23 September 2026) – Tatjana Smith has already achieved more in swimming than most athletes could dream of. Now she wants to see what happens when she starts again. This time, on her own terms.
South Africa’s most decorated Olympian is coming out of retirement with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games in her sights, almost two years after stepping away from competitive swimming following Paris 2024.
And there is a very specific reason for the comeback. Smith is targeting the 50m breaststroke, which will make its Olympic debut at LA28.
It is a very different challenge from the 100m and 200m breaststroke events that delivered her four Olympic medals between Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
Her medal haul includes 200m breaststroke gold and a world record in Tokyo, followed by 100m breaststroke gold in Paris. She also won silver in the 100m in Tokyo and the 200m in Paris.
Those four medals put her level with Chad le Clos as South Africa’s most decorated Olympians.
Yet after Paris, Smith decided to walk away. She spent months away from the pool, taking on speaking engagements and even completing a triathlon to satisfy the competitive side of her personality.
But swimming kept pulling her back.
“Every time I went back to the swimming pool and I dived in, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is a feeling that I really miss so much’,” she said. “It’s my decision whether I want to come back. I’m choosing swimming.”
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“I thought, ‘Why don’t I try? Why don’t I give myself that challenge? Reinvent myself’,” said Smith.
The 50m breaststroke demands a different approach from the longer distances, something Smith likens to the difference between a 400m runner and a 100m specialist.
“I always try and describe it to someone that maybe doesn’t understand swimming; it’s like a 400m runner and a 100m (runner),” she continued. “It’s two different body types, two different trainings, and that’s where I’m going.”
There is no pressure from her side to prove anything.
“I’ve achieved way more than I ever dreamed in my whole life,” she said. “So I have nothing to prove.”
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