Cameron van der Burgh smashed the world record to become the first South African men’s swimming Olympic champion in winning the 100m breaststroke gold medal at the Olympic swimming pool on Sunday 29 July. He managed, not only, to fight off a crack field, including defending Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima who was aiming to become the first man to win the same title at three successive Olympics, he also managed to set a new world record of 58.46sec, 0.12 seconds faster than the previous record held by Australian Brenton Rickard on July 27, 2009 at the world championships in Rome.
 
Speaking after the Cameron said “It’s a great feeling winning the medal for my country, It’s something I always dreamed about when I was younger – now I am living that dream”.
 
Van der Burgh’s victory ends a medal drought for South African swimming, after the team failed to win a single medal at the Beijing Games in 2008, a disappointment after Athens when an “awesome foursome” won gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay, followed by an individual silver and bronze from Roland Schoeman.