26 July 2005

At the Athens Olympics, Roland Schoeman collected gold, silver, and bronze medals but missed out on becoming an individual champion. At the FINA World Championships in Montreal he became a world champion in a record-setting fashion.

Swimming in the semi-finals of the 50 metres butterfly on Sunday, Schoeman set a world record of 23.01 seconds to book his place in the final. It was a considerable improvement over the previous record of 23.30.

On Monday evening, he lined up in the race for gold, facing Ian Crocker, whose world record he had broken, and Ryk Neethling, who finished second in his semi-final in 23.62.

Cracked the 23-second barrier
Exploding out of the starting blocks, Schoeman raced away to victory, becoming the first man ever to crack the 23-second barrier in the event as he broke his own world record in lowering the mark to 22.96.

The victory made him the first South African swimmer to be crowned world champion.

The USA's Crocker was second in 23.12, Ukraine's Sergiy Breus third in 23.38, and Neethling fourth.

Afterwards, Schoeman admitted that he was a little surprised that he swam his best time in the final, calling it "unexpected". He also said swimming against the former world record holder, Crocker, was a challenge.

"To get under 23 seconds, to be the first person to do that, it's quite phenomenal," he added.

Two more opportunities
Schoeman has two more opportunities to add to his gold medal when he contests the 50 metres and 100 metres freestyle.

In Athens he claimed silver in the 100m and bronze in the 50m. Judging by his explosive starting in Montreal, however, the 50 metres title might be the better bet for Schoeman to win another title. After all, it is his start that he is renowned for.

Schoeman's gold, silver and bronze medals in Athens have only been bettered by Penny Heyns' haul of two golds at the Atlanta Games in 1996, achieved in the 100 and 200 metres. However, no other South African has ever won three medals at one Olympics.

	In 2005, Roland Schoeman swum the second-fastest 50m freestyle ever, and became the first to break 23 seconds in the 50m butterfly (Photo: South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee)

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	FINA World Championships  Swimming South Africa  Ryk Neethling