Cameron van der Burgh Back, Aiming for Los Angeles Olympics
At age 37, South African Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh is back in the water and aiming for another Olympic run.
Van der Burgh retired after the 2018 Short-Course World Championships, eschewing a chance to swim on for another year toward the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo (which would end up postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic). One full Olympic cycle later, the gold medalist in the men’s 100 breaststroke at the 2012 Olympics is back.
“I’m at a point in my life where, as a father and a professional, I want to return to the world of high-level sport,” he said on his new podcast, Back to the Blocks, that will chronicle his journey. “Not with an ego-centered approach anymore, but with a path that has deep meaning, connected to my family and my well-being.”
Van der Burgh took a step in his return last week by swimming in the Speedo Invitational Short Course Meet in Dubai. He’s followed his gold in London in 2012 with silver in the 100 breast in Rio in 2016. He’s a six-time World Champion (two long-course, four short-course), among 18 total medals at Worlds. That included a golden double in the 50 and 100 breast at his curtain call meet in 2018.
He set eight world records in the 50 breaststroke in his career and three in the 100 breast, including a long-course mark of 58.46 at the London Olympics.
The inclusion of the 50 breaststroke at the Olympics aids in his decision, and that’s the event that he’ll gear his training toward.
“Because I have this huge muscle memory and [that] kind of training in the bank, we’re not starting at zero,” he said. “I think with a mix of good luck, smart training is going to be the most important thing here. We’re really looking into the details of trying to maximise the time that we have in the sessions, in the gym, in the pool. It’s going to be so much more based around speed this time, because the 50s are available instead of the 100.”
South Africa did not qualify a male breaststroker for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, though the qualification for the 50 strokes will be conducted at World Aquatics events. The last male breaststroker from South Africa to qualify for the Olympics was Michael Houlie in 2021.
