{"id":196652,"date":"2021-07-30T08:54:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T06:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/schoenmaker-scoops-sas-first-gold-medal-at-tokyo-olympics\/"},"modified":"2021-07-30T08:54:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T06:54:57","slug":"schoenmaker-scoops-sas-first-gold-medal-at-tokyo-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/schoenmaker-scoops-sas-first-gold-medal-at-tokyo-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Schoenmaker scoops SA\u2019s first gold medal at Tokyo Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sanews.gov.za\/sites\/default\/files\/2012\/images\/newsstorytemplate\/202107\/tatjanasnipped.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, has congratulated Tatjana Schoenmaker for scooping South Africa\u2019s first gold medal of the Tokyo Games in the women\u2019s 200m breaststroke in a world record on Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old South African smashed the 2:19.11 world record held by Denmark\u2019s Rikke Moller Pedersen since 2013.<\/p>\n<p>With a two minute 18.95 second mark, Schoenmaker has achieved the first individual world record of this gala.<\/p>\n<p>She is the 10th South African to have won multiple medals at single Games, and the fourth since readmission, after Penny Heyns, Roland Schoeman at the Athens 2004 games, and Chad Le Clos in London 2012 and Rio 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Mthethwa said South Africa is incredibly proud of Schoenmaker who has proven beyond a shadow of doubt that \u201cSouth Africa is indeed a nation of winners\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe set the pace from the onset of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by becoming the first female South African swimmer to win an Olympic medal in 21 years. She is a true ambassador of the nation and a living example that hard work and dedication truly pay off,\u201d Mthethwa said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Schoenmaker was the top seed in the 200m breaststroke going into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and upon achieving this momentous feat she said: \u201cI would never have even thought!\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is my first Olympics so for me to get a lane into the final, then everyone stands a chance. That\u2019s the thing I\u2019ve always believed in. So I\u2019ve exceeded, or God has exceeded, all my expectations so I couldn\u2019t be happier,\u201d said an elated Schoenmaker.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the athlete bagged a silver medal in the women\u2019s 100m breaststroke final. &#8211;&nbsp;<strong>SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, has congratulated Tatjana Schoenmaker for scooping South Africa\u2019s first gold medal of the Tokyo Games in the women\u2019s 200m breaststroke in a world record on Friday morning. The 24-year-old South African smashed the 2:19.11 world record held by Denmark\u2019s Rikke Moller Pedersen since 2013. With a two minute [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-196652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/schoenmaker-scoops-sas-first-gold-medal-at-tokyo-olympics.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}