SA puts too much pressure on swimmers - ASA president Alan Fritz

On Tuesday, France celebrated the 500 days countdown to the 2024 Paris Games, and Fritz feels South Africa has an unreasonably high level of expectations for the Olympic aquatics division given the minimal financial support from the corporate world.

“Sometimes, I want to run away from the expectations of this country. It is not easy to produce Olympic athletes, and the expectations are too much," the president told SABC Sport. 

"I am not going to make any medal predictions. The country expects better positions, podium finishes, and medals during the Olympics, yet we do not have enough support from corporates to support the swimmers to reach the level the country expects. 

"We cannot go to the Olympics as holidaymakers, we need funding to meet the expectations."

Fritz said the federation is two years behind schedule due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is doing its best to prepare the athletes for Paris. 

"In swimming, we work in cycles – starting with the juniors, junior elite, and the senior athletes, and the strategy works although we are two years behind," he added. 

"SA secured a fifth-place finish at the World Short-Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia in 2022, and we are happy with the progress. 

"The Americans and British spend a lot of money investing in their swimming. The Australians are back [and] we have our work cut out. 

"We are helping Pieter Coetzee, Lara van Niekerk, Kaylene Corbett, Tatjana Schoenmaker, and other youngsters prepare for the Olympics. We will arrange training camps locally and internationally for the Olympics."

 SA held a training camp locally last month, which Fritz said was a success. The SA Swimming Championships will take place from 10-17 April, followed by the Grand Prix international invitational in May.

"Our main focus is the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan in July, which should serve as a test and an indication of how far we are with our programme. 

"The swimmers look good and we hope to take them to a couple of swimming competitions this year, to gauge their fitness and readiness for the Games," Fritz concluded.

Fritz hopes they will receive money from the National Lottery to take the swimmers to a training camp in Paris in the lead-up to the Games.