Tatjana Smith failed to defend her Olympic 200m breaststroke crown last night as American Kate Douglass pipped her to the gold medal at the La Defense Arena in Paris.
Smith claimed the silver medal to take her overall Olympic medal tally to four – two gold and two silver – joining fellow swimming legend Chad le Clos as the most decorated South African Olympian of all time.
Smith will move ahead of Le Clos, who will begin his 2024 Olympic campaign today, based on her winning one more gold medal.
Douglass set a new American record time of 2:19.24, while Smith touched just behind her in 2:19.60. The Netherlands’ Tes Schouten claimed the bronze in 2:21.05.
South African Kaylene Corbett, who finished fifth in Tokyo three years ago, dropped to seventh place in 2:24.06.
Douglass charged off from the start and put Smith under pressure from the outset as she led the race at the halfway point by 0.12sec and extended that lead to 0.19 with 50m to go.
Smith is, however, renowned for her strong finish over the final stages and closed in on Douglass, and hope was renewed that she could claim back-to-back Olympic 200m breaststroke titles.
But the American managed to hold off Smith with a second burst to repeat her victory over the South African, which she also achieved in Wednesday’s semi-final.
South African Penny Heyns remains the only swimmer to ever claim the Olympic 100m and 200m double, which she achieved at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Smith’s race last night may be her last competitive event after she hinted in the build-up to the 200m breaststroke final that she could possibly retire after the Paris Games.
Team SA have now won four medals at the Games, which includes Smith’s two medals, mountain biker Alan Hatherly’s bronze and the rugby sevens bronze.
Earlier, South Africa’s Pieter Coetzé seemed set to bag a bronze medal heading into the final 50m of the 200m backstroke final, but the 20-year-old faded to finish in seventh position in a new African record time of 1:55.60.
Hungary’s Hubert Kós claimed the gold medal in 1:54.82 with Greece’s Apostolos Christou taking the silver in 1:54.82. Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov won bronze in 1:54.85.