South African Smith comes out of retirement, sets sights on 50m breaststroke at LA28

Sept 22 - Double Olympic champion Tatjana Smith has announced she is coming out of retirement and will focus on competing in the 50m breaststroke at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The South African won the 200 title at the Tokyo Olympics and followed that up with the 100 gold in Paris three years later, after which she announced her retirement.

The LA Games is set to feature all four strokes over 50m after the breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly were added to an expanded programme.

"For the first time I am choosing swimming and I am choosing this event and I'm choosing a new event that has no history, but I'll try and write some new history," the 29-year-old said in a video posted on social media on Monday.

"It scares me, but it also excites me. LA28 is the goal. It is not a promise. I still have to build a race, qualify, and earn my spot back on those blocks. I don't know how the story ends, but I know that I want to find out." REUTERS