Heyns helps launch new swimming club

Dubai: When double Olympic champion Penny Heyns first dived into a swimming pool she only ever hoped to be good enough to shake the winner by the hand with her head held high.

But by the time she retired in 2001 Heyns was, and still is, regarded as the greatest female breaststroke swimmer.

She broke 14 world records, 11 of them came in a three-month period in 1999, and held the 50, 100 and 200 metres world records at the same time.

But Heyns, who was in Dubai to help launch new swimming club, Dubai Swim, sees her success as a reflection of her faith rather than a triumph for herself.

Not impressed

"I never had any idea that my career would go this far," she said.

"I thought of it purely out of a sense of responsibility - if I really believed that God gave me the talent to swim, then I had to use it to the best of my ability. That was the only thing that drove me."

Initially, she says, winning was not the issue. "The first swim I came eighth out of eight. I didn't win. I just wanted to be good enough to earn the right to congratulate the winner." Her first Olympic experience in Barcelona in 1992 was not positive. "I wasn't impressed with the Olympics," she recalled.

"I swam badly and I felt disappointed and I thought it was time to retire and go home and begin tertiary education. But I prayed about it and never had peace so I took a scholarship to the states."

The rest is history. Heyns won both the 100 metres and 200 metres at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and broke the world record in a heat. She continued to smash world records in 1999 and she also took a bronze in Sydney 2000 prior to her retirement.

Now a motivational speaker, Heyns had just one piece of advice for the young athletes of Dubai Swim.

"Don't worry about what everyone else is doing, just make sure you do your best."