Penelope Heyns

Penny Heyns

University of Nebraska , USA
Medal record Women's swimming Representing  South Africa Olympic Games 1996 Atlanta 100 m breaststroke 1996 Atlanta 200 m breaststroke 2000 Sydney 100 m breaststroke World Championships (SC) 1999 Hong Kong 50 m breaststroke 1999 Hong Kong 100 m breaststroke 1999 Hong Kong 200 m breaststroke Pan Pacific Championships 1995 Atlanta 100 m breaststroke 1999 Sydney 100 m breaststroke 1999 Sydney 200 m breaststroke 1995 Atlanta 200 m breaststroke 1997 Fukuoka 100 m breaststroke Commonwealth Games 1994 Victoria 100 m breaststroke Goodwill Games 1998 New York 100 m breaststroke 1998 New York 200 m breaststroke Summer Universiade 1995 Fukuoka 100 m breaststroke 1995 Fukuoka 200 m breaststroke 1997 Catania 100 m breaststroke All-Africa Games 1995 Harare 100 m breaststroke 1995 Harare 200 m breaststroke 1995 Harare 4 x 100 m medley 1999 Johannesburg 100 m breaststroke 1999 Johannesburg 200 m breaststroke 1999 Johannesburg 4 x 100 m medley

Penelope ("Penny") Heyns

Heyns was the youngest member of the South African Olympic team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She was also a member of the South African squad at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, where she won a bronze medal in the 200 m breaststroke event.

Heyns broke her first world record, the 100 m breaststroke, in Durban in March 1996. Heyns was again part of the South African Olympic team in Atlanta in 1996, where she won the gold medal for the 100 m breaststroke (also breaking the world record for the event) as well as the gold medal for the 200 m breaststroke (also breaking the Olympic record for the event). This made her the only woman in the history of the Olympic Games to have won both the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke events. During the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York, Heyns set the 50 m breaststroke world record. In 1999, Heyns set a spate of eleven world records in three months, swimming at events on three different continents. This made her the simultaneous holder of five out of the possible six breaststroke world records, a feat that had never been achieved before in the history of swimming.

Heyns was named by

Heyns retired from competitive swimming in 2001. In 2004 Heyns was an athlete's commission member of the

• List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
• World record progression 50 metres breaststroke

References

External links

• Penny Heyns Homepage