Van Niekerk: What more can you want?

Commonwealth Games double gold medalist Lara van Niekerk was the biggest winner at the GSport Awards earlier this week and she is grateful for the support that she has been receiving. 

The teenage swimming star walked away with both the Athlete of the Year and Global Sportswoman of the Year awards, while also picking up a Ministerial Excellence Award. 

She beat stiff competition from the high-achieving Banyana Banyana star Holda Magada, who was influential in the Africa Cup of Nations triumph, as well as SA™s first Commonwealth Games judo gold medalist Michaela Whitebooi. 

Van Niekerk, who won the gold medals in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, reflects on her achievements and pays tribute to GSport for throwing their weight behind women in sport.

"I'm in awe. It's been amazing and I think it hasn't sunk in [yet], I didn't expect to walk away with three awards and I had a lot of amazing girls with me competing for these awards, so I'm just thrilled - I mean, wow, what more can you want," she said.

"I think it's really important, and I'm really happy that GSport is highlighting us women. I think it's very important because we get overlooked a lot, especially with sponsors and things, so I'm really happy that they are backing us all the way and getting our names out there."

After achieving all she had set out for herself in 2022, the highlight for van Niekerk was when she overtook her idol - 200m breaststroke world record holder and Olympic champion - Tatjana Schoenmaker in Birmingham, on her way to winning the 100m breaststroke.

"[Tatjana] very inspirational, I think I still watched her when she won the two gold medals in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and I thought to myself, 'I want to be like her, I also want to win gold medals.' And I think from there, I put my mind to it and decided I'm going to train hard and set my goals," she concluded.

By Velile Mnyandu