I had to feel the fear and go through it. When I started to glide through the water, it was a surreal experience. There was nothing to hear except the water sliding past my head, down my neck, over my shoulders, down my waist, and over my legs. But my heart was pounding; what if I drown? Well, that was my brief encounter with swimming and my experience has nothing to do with the subject of this article. While swimming is regarded as a special code, it remains underfunded in Botswana. Under the Botswana National Sport Associations Resource Allocation Scheme (BONSARAS) for the financial year 2024-2025, the Botswana Swimming Sport Association (BSSA) was placed in tier two.
Under the leadership of Kgaotsang Matthews, the association has been fortunate to secure sponsorship from the Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB), on two occasions. The first injection from DTCB to BSSA was P100, 000 when the junior team travelled to compete at the World Junior Aquatics Championships in Israel last year. Just last week, DTCB tipped the scale and sponsored swimming with a massive P3 million for the next three years. As BSSA celebrates 20 years, probably they will pop the champagne in October as the association was registered with the Registrar of Societies in the same month in 2004. Over the years, the BSSA has had many achievements but one of the beautiful memories was when Naomi Ruele became the second woman and the first swimmer ever to represent Botswana in the Olympics. Ruele received a wild card to represent the country at the Rio 2016 Olympics together with David van der Colf.
The two were followed by James Freeman who competed in the men’s 400m freestyle at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships but did not qualify for the finals. After receiving a wild card, Freeman represented his country at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the men’s 200m and 400m freestyle. The swimming Olympics journey started in 2012 when BSSA sent Sam Paxinos and James Kamyuka to the Beijing 2012 Games. The BSSA continued to glide through the waters when two swimmers, Adrian Robinson and Maxine Egner were allocated two slots to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as wild cards. A debut for the youngsters at the biggest sporting event in the world was a moment to savour. Robinson was the first into the pool over the weekend in the men’s 100m breaststroke finishing in position 27 overall during the heats. Egner followed on Tuesday in the women’s 100m freestyle and she also settled for position 27 during the heats.
It was a learning curve for the young swimmers who can now zoom into the future with optimism. They can shift their attention to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics with assured energy. Robinson told MmegiSport after getting off the pool that he felt everything went according to plan. “It was an experience I cannot even put into words. I was slightly off my best time, but that is the nature of sport, you cannot always get what you expect. I kept an open mind about my chances of making it to the next stage. I knew it would be extremely tough, so I did not try to predict the future. I am not disappointed about not advancing. I am more motivated to train harder and achieve this feat, if not more, one day,” said the proud Robinson.
The 24-year-old is already planning to return to Budapest (Hungary) to start preparing for the next Olympic cycle. For her part, Egner, 19, said it was all about learning from the difficult competition, and now her focus shifts to working hard in the next four years, and qualifying for the next Olympics. Despite the outcome, it is the lifetime memories engraved in the two swimmers' minds and also the pride to have represented their country at the Paris 2024 Olympics. With the DTCB sponsorship focusing much on development, more big splashes are expected for Botswana in the future. Robinson and Egner are based overseas courtesy of the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) Elite Scholarship.
