South Africa’s four-time Olympic medallist Tatjana Smith will no longer represent the country in the pool. Smith (previously Schoenmaker) announced this week that she intends swimming for the Netherlands, aiming to represent that country at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She holds dual South African and Dutch citizenship through her father.

In a parting shot at Swimming South Africa (SSA), Smith said athletes need an “opportunity to thrive, not just survive”.

Smith, a breast-stroke specialist, became the first South African to win gold medals at consecutive Olympic games (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024). She also holds the record for the most Olympic medals won by a South African (four), tied with Chad le Clos. In both her gold medal Olympic swims, Smith set a new world record.

The chart below shows South Africa's most decorated Olympians since 1992.

Smith has responded to a long history of what can only be described as abuse of swimmers by SSA. It takes time and dedication to rise to the top in any sport, and part of the role of national sports organisations is to relieve the top athletes of the pressure of having to worry about routine details. SSA has not only failed to do so but has in fact added to the burden.

After the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, SSA withheld Smith’s $35 000 (R650 000) prize money for more than a year after claiming she was in breach of the swimming team’s sponsorship deal with Italian swimwear manufacturer Arena. When the prize money was eventually paid out, after legal intervention, SSA attempted to retain the interest earned (R75 000) claiming it was a “management fee”.

SSA were aggressive and obstructive throughout the process. The swimming organisation threatened to impose a fine of R856 000 on Smith for her use of her equipment provided by her own private sponsor (Speedo). During the saga, Smith’s legal team had to lodge a Promotion of Access to Information Act request to scrutinise SSA’s exclusive commercial deal with Arena. It was found that swimmers received no direct compensation from sponsorship deals but were banned from personal sponsorships. This is an unlawful restraint of trade under South African law.

Smith has described her relationship with SSA as “absent”. She revealed that her family and personal network had invested roughly R10 million over her 16-year career to fund her swimming, and recalled instances such as the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where South African swimmers were so poorly equipped that they had to share goggles.

But Smith’s experience is not unique. Rather than receiving financial backing from SSA, South African swimmers have encountered financial ultimatums that sound more characteristic of a protection racket than sports management. In October, the organisation sent a circular to swimmers selected for the World Aquatics Swimming Championships in Beijing in December, demanding they pay up to R55 000 out of pocket (or R37 000 if booking their own flights) to cover accommodation, travel, and federation management costs. The directive explicitly warned that failure to pay the deposit by 10 November would result in immediate withdrawal from the national team.

This was not a one-off. Ahead of the August 2026 Junior Artistic Swimming Championships, SSA demanded that athletes selected pay nearly R86 000 each to compete. Because multiple swimmers could not afford the fee and were forced to withdraw from the team, SSA raised the bill for the remaining swimmers to R120 000 per person.

SSA is facing a crisis involving international suspensions and allegations of criminality, as well as systemic neglect of athletes. The international governing body for swimming, World Aquatics, suspended SSA president Alan Fritz and long-serving CEO Shaun Adriaanse in August. Various investigations are probing the disappearance of local and international grants totalling nearly R100 million. This includes R50 million spent on the now-defunct Franschhoek High-Performance Centre, a project being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit.

Fritz and Adriaanse have been barred from holding any aquatics positions or attending events while facing disciplinary proceedings. World Aquatics cited potential violations of the World Aquatics Integrity Code, specifically alleging abuse of power, providing false information, and submitting fake documents.

Swimmers have accounted for 18 of South Africa’s 44 medals since the country was readmitted to the Olympic movement in Barcelona in 1992, more than any other discipline.

The chart below shows Olympic medals by discipline for South Africa since 1992.

Yet scant reward has accrued to this dedicated corps. Instead, it seems, too large a portion of the revenues that do reach swimming disappear into the insatiable black hole of a corrupt administration.

There could not be a clearer case of a need to intervene. Yet Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie has defended the government’s failure to act, doing no more than noting that national federations are independent bodies responsible for their own governance.