Tatjana Smith Bids Farewell to Swimming and Sets Sights on Empowering the Next Generation of Female Athletes
Tatjana Smith, South Africa's most decorated Olympian, retires from swimming citing financial pressures. She now aims to empower young female athletes and give back to her community.
Image Credits: Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Following her decision to retire during the Paris Olympics, swimmer Tatjana Smith revealed that financial pressure contributed to her decision to hang up her swimming suit.
Reasons for Retirement
At 27 years of age, in peak form, no one could have seen South African swimmer Tatjana Smith's retirement coming.
Even Smith herself did not know that she would be taking the retirement route so soon in her life.
However, Smith felt it was just the right time for her to walk away from the sport she loved and dedicated 22 years of her life to.
In a 22-year time frame, Smith swam her way to being the most decorated South African Olympian in history with two gold and silver medals in two Olympic events - Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
Smith has also collected three Commonwealth Games gold medals to go with her various record-breaking performances in her career.
Image Credits: Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Smith says the finances and lack thereof had an impact on her decision to retire.
"The pressure was coming (to retire) from the financial side. I was fortunate enough to make swimming my career since I came back from Tokyo. Before that I was still very much reliant on my parents, I wasn't really getting the funding that I needed to live by myself," Smith told SportsBoom.com.
"I could only start building something up since 2021. So, three years felt like it was just not enough I can't now retire and not do anything. That financial pressure was just weighing in a lot on me.
"I felt I wasn't being true to myself, and I felt that I never did swimming for the money. I did it because I love the sport, and I love competing. I wanted to see how far I could push myself and to see what boundaries I could break.
I just had to re-shift and remind myself to stay true to who I am. I had so much peace going into my last warm-up, my last race.
Tatjana Smith
Making the Decision to Retire
Smith says going into the 2024 Paris Olympics Games, she did not know that she would be going to her last Olympics let alone her last career competition.
It was during the 2024 Paris Olympics that the 27-year-old decided to make what is a tough decision for any professional athlete, let alone one who has reached the pinnacle of the sport.
Image Credits: FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP via Getty Images
"I actually decided to retire within Paris. The decision is never easy. I put 22 years into swimming," she said.
"I was fortunate enough to end up winning a gold medal. Going to Paris, it was never the plan, I was going to carry on swimming. It was between my 100 and 200 that I just felt really convicted in my heart," she added.
Empowering Women Post-Retirement
Smith has a deep passion for giving back to the South African community, the very same community that supported her in her own journey.
The 27-year-old wants to focus on empowering young girls and women athletes to have a smoother journey in sport and in life in general instead of going through the struggles that she has had to go through in her own career.
"We have massive hearts. There's so much that we want to do. The system is at fault," Smith said.
"I was able to fortunately carry that load and still be able to achieve that success. Now, because I'm in this position I think it's very important to give back and to allow other girls to not experience that," she added.
Ongama Gcwabe is an experienced Sports Journalist based in South Africa. In his career, Ongama’s work has been published in the country’s biggest newspapers company, Independe Newspapers, and some of the leading news and sports websites including IOL Sport.