Kayla Swarts: From watching brother Wayde van Niekerk break the world record to hoping to share the Olympic stage
Kayla Swarts grew up in a home steeped in the allure of the Olympic Games. Reaching and delivering his magnum opus at the global showpiece occupied every part of Swarts’ older sibling.
As she watched in awe how big brother Wayde van Niekerk obliterated the 400m world record to claim his maiden Olympic title at Rio 2016, her passion for the Games was ignited.
Swarts was only 13 years old when she experienced the euphoria of her brother lighting up the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro with his audacious win from lane eight.
“Once I was there in the stadium, watching him that day break the record and seeing how ecstatic my family was and just the feeling that I experienced, I was like, 'Oh my, I hope one day I also get to feel this and have my family come to watch me, it would be so cool for me,” Swarts said in an interview with Olympics.com.
“And now that it's real, it's crazy because that was just a few years ago and I was looking at my brother like, 'oh my word, Wayde, you are so cool!' And now I am in those same shoes.”
A dream comes into focus
The 21-year-old Swarts is set to make her Olympic debut in the hockey tournament at Paris 2024 where Van Niekerk will be looking to reclaim his title from eight years ago.
Swarts played for the Proteas women’s hockey team that qualified for the Games at the African Hockey Road to Paris 2024 tournament in November 2023. She has become a regular in the national teams since her senior debut at the FIH Nations Cup against Italy in Valencia, Spain, in December 2022.
Should she make the final team for the Paris 2024 team, she would fulfil a lifelong dream of sharing the Olympic stage with one of her siblings. Older brother Van Niekerk is set to make his third appearance at the Games after posting a qualifying time of 44.08 seconds last year.
For Swarts, the dream had come sooner than she had expected as she worked her way up from a promising junior to a senior national player.
She first represented South Africa at the Inaugural Senior Hockey Fives event in Lausanne, Switzerland shortly after her 19th birthday. Months later she was selected for the senior 11-a-side national team.
“I really didn't expect it to happen so fast. Going to Switzerland. I was like, 'Oh my word, this is so cool. I'm putting on a South African kit. I have a number,” she said.
“You dream and say, ‘One day I want to be in the South African women's team’, but it's obviously going to take time, hard work and patience on the journey because this is just the start. But then you take that massive leap forward and suddenly you are in the SA women's team.”
'Rio 2016 has always been Wayde's dream'
Now on the cusp of realising her own dream at the quadrennial showpiece, Swarts was almost destined to follow in the footsteps of her Olympic-mad brother. Swarts relays the story of how Van Niekerk manifested his Rio 2016 dream.
“While Wayde was still in school, he enjoyed drawing a lot. So, many times after school, he'd sit in my father's office, and then he'd draw the Brazilian flag and post it on my father's desk board," she said.
“We also got a husky, while Wayde was still in school, and we named her Rio*. So, everything was already being said and spoken. It was something that we spoke about. It's always been his dream.”
Although there is a 10-year difference between the two, their mother, Odessa Swarts, who was a talented athlete in her day, said there were some similarities between her two children.
The similarities extend beyond their shared passion for sports with some people mistaking the two for twins.
'Why are you so weird?'
Swarts recently visited Van Niekerk for twee weeks in the United States after she completed a training camp with the national team in the People’s Republic of China and India. There a star-struck Swarts got to meet some of the biggest names in the athletics world that frequent Van Niekerk’s orbit.
“Rubbing shoulders with great athletes. Wayde always jokes because, to me, he is just Wayde. And then when I see the other athletes, like, Noah Lyles, Grant Holloway, Tara Woodhall, I'm like, so mesmerised. And then he's always saying, 'Just be normal, why are you so weird?” Swarts said.
“And the funny thing is, when we were there, I was asking all the athletes if I could take pictures with them, but then Wayde would be the one taking the photo. They’d all laugh because it's like this random girl asking Wayde van Niekerk to take the pictures. But they didn't take me seriously and I was like, ‘He's my brother!”
Reuniting at the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony?
Swarts, who has been named as one of the reserves for the South African team, hopes to be with her brother during the Opening Ceremony. The parade of athletes will be held on the Seine with boats for each national delegation.
“We might be able to see each other at the Opening Ceremony, considering that Team South Africa will be on one big boat,” she said.
“I can't imagine how special that moment would be. It's still so surreal, like every day, I slowly process what's happening. It's not every day that you experience such a massive thing with your brother. That's such a rare occasion and I would be blessed to be able to experience that. It's really crazy!”
The South African women’s hockey team will face Australia, Argentina, Great Britain, Spain and the United States during the group stages of the tournament that will run from 27 July to 9 August.
* Swarts confirmed that Rio the husky was still alive, kicking, and loved.