First Olympic swimming medal came from Benoni
Swimmer Cameron van der Bergh won the first medal for South Africa at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, but, did you know that South Africa’s first Olympic swimming medal was won by a woman from Benoni?
Benonian Peter Wood informed the City Times that South Africa sent a team of five women swimmers to compete in the 1928 Summer Olympic Games, in Amsterdam.
The team coach was Jimmy Green and the manager was Rachel Finlayson.
The team consisted of Kathleen Russell (15, from Durban), Zus Engelenberg from Pretoria, Frederika “Freddie” van der Goes, Mary “Marie” Ester Bedford and Rhoda Rennie (19, from Benoni).
Rhoda Lilian Rennie was the daughter of the well-known Benoni pioneer, George Rennie, and his wife, Nellie Johanna (born Vermaak).
Rhoda was born on May 2, 1909, and showed a talent for swimming at an early age.
At the Amsterdam Olympic Games, in 1928, she participated in both the 100m and the 400m freestyle heats, but was eliminated without reaching the finals.
On August 9, 1928, however, Rennie, Russell, van der Goes and Bedford took part in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.
The South African team came in third, winning a bronze medal – South Africa’s first ever swimming medal.
Rennie later married Percy Wrighton.
Rhoda (Rennie) Wrighton died tragically in 1963.
She is buried next to her father and mother in Benoni.
British Pathé shot a silent newsreel of the South African 1928 women’s swimming team.
It can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/9hB
The 1928 Summer Olympic Games was the first Olympics where the South African team marched in under the (old) orange, white and blue South African flag.
With earlier Olympic Games, the South African team marched behind the Union Jack, as, before the 1928 Games, there was no South African flag.
The 1928 Games was also the first Games where an Olympic flame was lit.
The tower on which the flame burned during the Games still stands in Amsterdam today – it was the brainchild of the stadium architect, Jan Wils.
The original 1928 Amsterdam swimming bath (as seen in the silent newsreel) has been demolished, but the Amsterdam Athletics Stadium is still in use and was, in fact, recently refurbished and restored to close to what it looked like in 1928.
