{"id":593332,"date":"2024-07-31T02:25:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T09:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=593332"},"modified":"2024-07-31T03:28:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T10:28:44","slug":"paris-olympics-day-5-prelims-tatjana-smith-opens-defense-of-200-breaststroke-title-in-fine-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paris-olympics-day-5-prelims-tatjana-smith-opens-defense-of-200-breaststroke-title-in-fine-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics, Day 5 Prelims: Tatjana Smith Opens Defense of 200 Breaststroke Title in Fine Form"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris Olympics, Day 5 Prelims: Tatjana Smith Opens Defense of 200 Breaststroke Title in Fine Form<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last time Tatjana Smith<\/strong> contested the 200-meter breaststroke at the Olympic Games, the South African captured the gold medal in Tokyo, complementing an earlier silver medal in the 100 breaststroke. Now, Smith (n\u00e9e Schoenmaker<\/strong>) is looking for a sweep, having already secured victory in the 100 breaststroke at the Paris Games.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Smith got off to a strong start in her title defense, as she opened the Day Five preliminaries with a time of 2:21.57. Known for her aggressive approach regardless of the round, Smith didn’t hold much back in her fourth race of the Games, and the result was a top-seeded performance for the evening semifinals. Smith entered action with the top time in the world for 2024, a 2:19.01 from April.<\/p>\n