17-Year-old Tuks swimmer Pieter Coetzé set for Tokyo Olympics 2021!

17-Year-old Tuks swimmer Pieter Coetzé set for Tokyo Olympics 2021!

Pieter Coetzè is turning 17 today and is going to the Olympic Games! 

Pieter Coetzè
Source: Jacaranda FM

The Tuks swimmer, Pieter Coetzé, has set himself the goal of trying to achieve what few South African male swimmers, if any, had been able to do, that is, qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games the age of 16.

Guess what? Pieter qualified and he is on his way to the Olympics! 

He has dominated the backstroke-events during local galas. His winning time, 55.92s in the 100m-backstroke was a mere 0.47 slower than FINA's Olympic B-qualifier according to TuksSport. 

Coetzee, however, believes he is capable of being faster. According to him, the A-qualifying standard of 53.85s is doable.

"I trained as I usually would, hard and long hours. If I had taken things slightly easier, rested a bit and shaved adequately, I could have swum faster. To swim two seconds faster is not impossible."

Coetzè is hard on himself but the star swimmer is ready to break records! He joined Breakfast with Martin Bester to talk about his swimming career at the age of 17-years-old. 

Tune in to the 'Breakfast with Martin Bester', weekdays from 06:00 - 09:00. Stream the show live here or download our mobile app here.

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