Today in History: Penny Heyns wins gold at 1996 Olympics
Penny Heyns surely made herself known to the swimming world with her astonishing feats in the swimming pool.
Penny Heyns is undoubtedly the greatest female swimmer the country has produced, and 22 years ago today she made history on multiple fronts at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Heyns was born in Springs in 1974, and worked hard for her career in swimming, making her debut for South Africa at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Heyns focused mainly on breaststroke and would win her first medal for South Africa at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in the form of a bronze medal in the 200m breaststroke event.
Two years later, in March 1996, shortly before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Heyns set a new world record for the 100m breaststroke by achieving a time of 1:07.46, bettering the previous world record by 13 one-hundredths of a second. Only four months later, on 21 July, she reset the world record once again, bettering her own record with a time of 1:07.02. She would break her record a further three times, with her best time coming at 1:06.52.
Two days after making waves in the 100m breaststroke, she took on the daunting 200m event, also at the Olympics. Heyns was definitely an outside favourite heading into the first qualifying rounds of the day. Refusing to stick to the usual idea that one spares energy in the qualifiers, Heyns set a new Olympic record to qualify top of the heap for the finals. She would take the bull by the horns in the final and break the record for the second time on the same day as she won gold with a time of 2:25.41.
Her victory in the 200m event made her the first woman in history (a feat that remains her own to this day) to win both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events at the same Olympic games.
Relive the 200m world record race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics right here:
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