World Aquatics Championships 2023: Olympic champion Tatjana Schoenmaker makes another golden statement in 200m breaststroke after "tough two years" post-Tokyo 2020
Defending champion Lilly King finishes behind the South African and off the podium in two breaststroke races in Fukuoka.
Swimming
Olympic gold medallist Tatjana Schoenmaker reconfirmed her class in the women's 200m breaststroke by outracing defending champion Lilly King for gold at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Friday (28 July).
The South African swimmer started off trailing to King and Dutch swimmer Tes Schouten in the first 100m, but seized the lead after the second turn and kept extending the advantage to the finish.
Schoenmaker's final time of 2:20.80 was 0.43 seconds ahead of silver medallist Kate Douglass of USA and almost a second ahead of Schouten, who finished third.
“It was the unexpected. I think that's why there was so much emotions because coming into this meet, I wasn't really ranked in the top three in any of my events." Schoenmaker said to reporters poolside after winning her first world title in the event. "My times haven't been as great since the Olympics and that was OK. I just knew I wanted to pitch up and not be scared to take on the opportunity to race some of these girls.
"I was telling Lilly that we are the only two from the Olympic final that were in this final, so it's a whole new field and it's always nice to race each other and get in that experience because we're heading into Paris. That's the next big one."
King finished fourth in the 100 and 200m breaststroke races. The USA swimmer had a strong start in the 200m event, but fell back after the second turn and struggled to keep up as her teammate Douglass and Shouten overtook her in the closing stages.
Schoenmaker: Settling into Olympic champion status
Schoenmaker skipped last year's World Aquatics Championships to focus on the 2022 Commonwealth Games instead.
With extra pressure on her as Olympic champion, the South African said it was the right decision at the time not to pitch herself against her Tokyo 2020 rivals. Almost two years since winning that Olympic final with a world record, Schoenmaker is becoming more confortable with the brighter spotlight.
“Coming into this, I realise how much of me winning the Olympics puts pressure on myself and maybe it's not always from people, but (the) pressure (you put) on yourself is a lot more," she said. "You assume that people have that expectation of you to come in and win again.
"These two years it gave me enough time to work through those emotions and sometimes I stand behind the block and I'm like, 'ah', or in the (warm-up) room. And I think to myself, 'Why do I put myself through this mental battle?' It's so draining. But it's a lot of character building and I think you surprise yourself with how much you can actually handle, how much humans can actually handle. And every time after a race, I just surprise myself more."
Schoenmaker also surprised herself three days earlier when she took silver in the 100m breaststroke event.
"It's my second world champs, so to make the team is already incredible," the swimmer said. "I didn't expect to walk away with any medals. If I didn't, I would have been just as happy.”