Leading swimmer trains without pool
With all of the swimming meets cancelled, he will have to refocus and wait until next year to hopefully make it into the SA team to the Olympics.
A South African A-list swimmer says the lockdown has challenged his ability to maintain his mental and physical fitness.
Ryan Coetzee (24), a Phalaborwa resident was a bronze medalist in the 50m butterfly at the 2019 Commonwealth Games. He told the Herald that he has been working towards swimming Olympic qualifying times for the past year. With all of the swimming meets cancelled, he will have to refocus and wait until next year to hopefully make it into the SA team to the Olympics.
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“As a swimmer, the Olympics is everything you work towards. It is the event you dream of your whole life. It is definitely tough to accept that it will not be happening this year,” admitted Coetzee. “The cancellation of all the qualifying events and the Olympics itself, has taken the pressure off,” he said.
“Obviously all the athletes wanted it this year, but you can only control what you can. Right now I am relaxed about the situation and I just have to put myself in the best position for next year. Coetzee also said that the lockdown has given him some time off swimming and do things he normally did not have time for.
“I am working on becoming mentally stronger and to relax more. The last couple of months have been stressful,” he said.
With the regulations he is restricted to his own back yard with a small pool and has set himself new goals.
“I get to focus my exercises on things that I normally do not focus on, like my hips and shoulders. I never have much time to do it, so it is great that I can work on these things now,” elaborated Coetzee.
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Coetzee also told the Herald that he misses going out for a meal. “I spent my whole Sunday baking. It is taking so much of my time as I have to prep everything and have to clean up. I miss the freedom of getting out of the house,” stated Coetzee.
He explained that his training involves running on a treadmill, swimming which according to him is freezing, weightlifting and yoga.
“I try and put in two hours of training every day. Because it is not a scheduled training programme, one has to apply a lot of self-discipline,” concluded Coetzee.
