Roland Schoeman

Roland Mark Schoeman OIS (born 3 July 1980) is a South African and American former swimmer was a world record holder in multiple events, and was a member of the South African swimming team at the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. He won a gold medal representing South Africa in the 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2004 Athens Olympics and between 2000-2014 won numerous medals including seven golds in freestyle, and butterfly events at the World Championships, Pan American, and Commonwealth games.

Early life and overview

Born in Pretoria on July 3, 1980, Schoeman first took an interest in the sport when he was 13, and began to compete three years later.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He said he began swimming only to impress a girl he met. He attended Pretoria's Willow Ridge High School, where he trained under coach Gavin Ross. In 1998, shortly before beginning college at the University of Arizona, he finished sixth in the 50 and 100 meter freestyles at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lampur.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In his career he would attain a gold, silver and bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Games; three gold, a silver and a bronze medal in the World Championships, as well as four gold, three silvers and three bronzes at the Commonwealth Games. He set new South African records in the 100 m Freestyle (48.69 s), 50 m Freestyle (22.04 s), 100 m Butterfly (52.73 s) and 50 m Butterfly (23.65 s) events.<ref name=historySchoeman>Template:Cite web</ref>

University of Arizona

Schoeman attended the University of Arizona on a swimming scholarship between 1998-2002,<ref name=historySchoeman/> where he was coached by ASCAA Hall of Fame Coach Frank Busch and Assistant Coach Rick DeMont. Coach DeMont also served as a primary coach for Schoeman's South African Team at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. As a collegiate swimmer at the University of Arizona, DeMont had held world records in both the 400-meter and 1500-meter freestyle, and excelled at middle and long distance freestyle events, making him a skilled mentor for advancing Schoeman's freestyle technique.<ref name=Artist>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2000, at the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in Minnesota, while swimming as a Sophomore, Schoeman tied the short course world record in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 21.31. While at Arizona in 2002, he again won the NCAA Championship in the 50-meter freestyle, in addition to capturing several runner-up finishes and multiple All-American honors.<ref name=UAHOF>Template:Cite web</ref> Roland would later became the first person ever to record a time of less than 21 seconds in the 50 meter freestyle.<ref name=UA>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Artist>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

Schoeman competed for South Africa in the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 50-meter freestyle placing eleventh and the 100 meter freestyle event placing fifteenth, as well as the 4x100 meter freestyle relay where his team placed eleventh.<ref name=Olympedia/>

Three 2004 Olympic medals

Schoeman won three medals at the 2004 Olympics, making him the first South African to win three medals in one Olympics. He won a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle. He captured the silver medal in the 100 m freestyle event recording a time of 48.23. Schoeman and South African teammate Neethling led in the first half of the 100 meter event, but Pieter Van Den Hoogenband of the Netherlands had a strong finish to defend his title and take the gold medal. Schoeman won a bronze in the 50 m freestyle with a time of 22.02 in a typically close finish. Though leading in the early portion of the 50-meter event, Schoeman faded to third place, finishing only .08 seconds behind the unexpected second place silver medalist, Duje Draganja of Croatia.<ref name=Olympedia>Template:Cite web</ref>

In his most memorable event at the 2004 games, Schoeman helped South Africa upset the Netherlands and the dominant United States in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay, an historic upset. The 2004 4x100 meter Olympic gold medal South African relay team consisted of Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend, and Ryk Neethling.<ref name=Olympedia/><ref name=HOF>Template:Cite web</ref> As one of the events faster swimmers, Schoeman's opening leg in the 4x100 freestyle relay opened up a lead that remained throughout the race defeating the second place Netherlands teams by a second and defeating the United States team which took the bronze. Ryk Neethling swam the fastest time of the South African 4x100 relay team in the final heat and insured the South African win, despite a close finish.<ref name=Olympedia/>

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Schoeman participated in the 50-meter freestyle and the 4x100 meter freestyle relay finishing seventh in both events.<ref name=Olympedia/>

At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Schoeman, aged 32, advanced to the finals in the men's 50 m freestyle though he finished sixth, clocking a 21.80 in the finals to finish 0.46 seconds behind the gold medal winner, Florent Manaudou.<ref name=Olympedia/>

In 2016, Schoeman missed qualifying for a fifth Olympics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2006 Commonwealth games

Three of the Men's 4x100 metre Freestyle team at the 2004 Olympics were in the team that broke the record and won gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He also claimed golds at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in the 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly.<ref name=historySchoeman/>

2001, 2005, 2007 World Aquatic Championships

Schoeman won a bronze in the 50 meter freestyle at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships.<ref name=Olympedia/>

At the 2005 FINA World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada he won two gold medals [50 m Butterfly (in a world record time of 22.96 s) and Freestyle (21.69 s, the second fastest time in history at the time). He also claimed a silver in 100 m freestyle.<ref name=Olympedia/>

At the 2007 FINA World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne Australia he successfully defended his 50m butterfly title. He also made the final of the 50 m and 100 m freestyle and was part of the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team that finished fourth.<ref name=Olympedia/>

In December 2005, he turned down a 40 Million Rand (US$5.9 million) contract to swim for Qatar. He turned down the offer due to his own national pride and because he felt the sound of the South African national anthem and the experience of sharing pride in his victories with other citizens of South Africans is what made winning gold special.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After his elite swimming career ended, he competed in the 1 Mile Flowers Sea Swim at the Cayman Islands in June 2018, finishing with a time of 24:05.<ref name=historySchoeman/>

In July 2019, Schoeman received a provisional suspension after testing positive for GW501516 (Cardarine) in an out-of-competition test on May 18, 2019. FINA (now World Aquatics) initially imposed a one-year ban set to end in May 2020, accepting the claim of unintentional ingestion from a contaminated supplement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed FINA's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). After a lengthy process, it was publicly reported in September 2022 that CAS had ruled the ban should be increased to two years, effectively extending his ineligibility until May 2021.<ref name="SWorld_Oct22">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Life after swimming career

Following his swimming career in May 2022, he also became a citizen of the United States.<ref name="SWorld_Oct22">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite Instagram</ref>

Roland has been a licensed realtor in Arizona since 2021.Template:Citation needed

In 2023 he was part of the Enhanced Games athletes advisory commission.<ref name="The Enhanced Games – a drugs Olympics">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="The Enhanced Olympics: Drugs welcome!">Template:Cite news</ref>

Records

Schoeman was the former individual world record holder in the Long Course Meters 50 butterfly, Short Course Meters 50 freestyle, Short Course Meters 100 freestyle, and Short Course Meters 100 individual medley. On 6 September 2008, Schoeman set a new short course meters (25 m pool) world record of 20.64 for a 50-meter swim at South African Nationals. He lost his world record in late 2008 but regained it in August 2009. At the South Africa Short Course Championships, Schoeman recorded a time of 20.30 seconds for the 50-meter event, which was broken in 2014 by Florent Manaudou. Overall, Schoeman has broken three long course world records with two individual, and one relay, and six individual short course world records.<ref name=UAHOF/>

Event	Time	Record	Date	Location
Long course
50m Freestyle	21.67	SA Record Holder	16 Aug 2008	Beijing, China
50m Freestyle	21.67 =	SA Record Holder	2 Aug 2013	Barcelona, Spain
100m Freestyle	48.17	Former SA Record Holder	15 Aug 2004	Athens, Greece
50m Butterfly	22.90	Former WR Holder	26 Jul 2009	Rome, Italy
4 × 100 m Freestyle	3:11.93	Former WR Holder	26 Jul 2009	Rome, Italy
Short course
50m Freestyle	20.30	Former WR Holder	8 August 2009	Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
100m Freestyle	46.25	Former WR Holder	22 January 2005	Berlin, Germany
50m Butterfly	21.87		14 Nov 2009	Berlin, Germany
100m IM	52.20	Former WR Holder	13 Aug 2006	Hamburg, Germany

Honors

Schoeman, who is asthmatic, was voted the African Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World in 2004, 2005 and 2006; and the South African Swimmer of the Year in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. He was elected South African Sports Star of the Year in 2004.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2007, he received the South African Presidential Award Order of Ikhamanga in Silver, awarded for excellent achievements in the field of swimming.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2004 he was inducted into the University of Pretoria Sport Hall of fame.<ref>Template:Cite web Hall of fame Retrieved 25 June 2011</ref>

In 2007 he was inducted into the University of Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In August, 2024, he was inducted into the South Africa Sports Hall of Fame, along with the three other swimmers who won the gold medal in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay at the 2004 Athens Olympics.<ref name=SASHOF>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming (men)
• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
• World record progression 50 metres freestyle
• World record progression 100 metres freestyle
• World record progression 50 metres butterfly
• World record progression 100 metres individual medley

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:FINA
• Template:Swimrankings
• Template:Olympics.com profile
• Template:Olympedia
• Template:CGF profile