The history of competitive water sports in southern Africa

Results and Records

One of the goals for this website is to publish results of long-past events. The annual national championship results have never been published as a complete set of results, and today exist only in old newspaper archives. Without any history of the past as a reference, it is surely impossible to appreciate the present.

The list of world records set by swimmers from South Africa and Zimbabwe provide proof of the commitment to the sport in the region. The ancient history of SA Championships results going back to the beginning of the 20th century provide a context for these world records, as is shows development of the sport to where it is today. It also serves to keep alive the names of those pioneers of swimming - the coaches and athletes - who were passionate about their sport. It is difficult to even imagine the trip to Stockholm for the 1912 Olympic GAmes, undertaken by swimmer George Godfrey from Durban. He certainly was not able to do much trainiong during the trip, which must have taken some months from Durban, before he was able to do any training in Sweden. Today little is know of this undertaking, but perhaps the story can still be re-dicovered.

See the Articles page for the list of World Records.