Get to know rising SA swimming star Grace Morris
South Africa is recognised for producing top swimmers who compete at the highest levels of the sport.
In the past decade or so, we’ve seen world-class athletes Tatjana Smith and Chad le Clos, among others, carry the nation’s hopes at various international meets and the Olympic Games.
Smith called time on her illustrious career after the 2024 Olympic Games in France after winning a gold and silver medal for Team SA.
Le Clos, who famously beat the American legend Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly final at the London Olympics Games to win gold, has slipped from his best but is still on a mission to revive his career.
There is no cause for concern, however, that South Africa’s swimming cupboard is bare because top talents, including Chris Smith, Matthew Sates, Pieter Coetze, Jessica Thompson, and Jarden Eaton have shown that swimming in South Africa is in good shape.
While Swimming SA continues to grow its pedigree in the national and international space, the schools’ scene is as healthy as it’s been in a long time.
One of the swimmers that’s been grabbing the headlines and spotlight of late is 17-year-old Grace Morris, from Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape.
Morris is a Grade 11 pupil at Rhenish Girls’ High School and is one of the most exciting, talented, and promising athletes in the country.
She is versatile in the pool and participates in a wide range of events, including the 50m and 100m freestyle and backstroke. Morris also dabbles in the relay, but her main event is the 200m backstroke, which she’s dominated in recent years.
She looks at home in the pool and always has a cracking start, thanks to the swimming lessons she was forced to take as a young child.
“I started the sport when I was four. My parents took me to a ‘Learn to Swim’ school, and I’m told I hated it,” Morris told SuperSport Schools Plus.
“I started enjoying the sport when I was about eight. At 11, I started training with a club, and that’s really when everything kicked off.
“I come from a swimming family. My dad was a swimmer before he started playing SA Water Polo, and my mom was also a good swimmer when she was younger.”
Morris spent most of her youth in Johannesburg before her family relocated to the Western Cape in 2024.
While in Gauteng, she attended St Peter’s Prep before donning the white and red of St Mary’s Waverley for two years.
She was already committed to swimming while at St Mary’s, but her move to Rhenish at the age of 16 changed her mindset for the better.
“I always had an idea of how good of a swimmer I was,” Morris explained. “I’ve always known that swimming is my passion and talent, but I started taking it seriously in 2024 when I got to Stellenbosch.
“In previous years, I was training but not as consistently as I am now. I’ve upped the training, doing so many sessions. It’s been a massive step up.”
After only a year in the Western Cape, Morris made her presence felt at the 2024 Western Province Long Course Championships. There, she was in top shape and scooped up a whopping 10 medals (five gold in individual events, four gold in relay events, and one silver).
That event, however, came a year after she made her international debut for South Africa at the 15th edition of the African Junior Championships in Mauritius.
Morris, who was aged 16 at the time, won gold in her favoured 200m backstroke event.
She also donned the green and gold at the XVI Africa Aquatics Swimming Championships in Angola, from which she returned with six medals.
“Representing my country at such a young age wasn’t something I was expecting,” she admitted.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to make the team or not, and when I got the message, I was so happy. It was a surreal moment because my hard work was starting to pay off.
“That was also one of the things that made me start working hard and putting extra effort into my swimming.”
Morris is a member of one of the top swimming clubs in the country, Lane Leader (LL), located in Stellenbosch. She’s coached by the experienced Dr Karin Hugo and trains as part of a stacked roster.
“Lane Leader has done so much for me. It’s quite amazing to train with people who have experience and to learn from them.
“Just to be coached by Karin is an honour. She’s so experienced, and I know for sure that I am in good hands.”
The Rhenish star, who revealed that her role models are her parents, top South African swimmer Emma Chelius, and Australian Kaylee McKeown, has been through a busy season.
After helping Rhenish win another 4M swimming Gala trophy, she travelled to Gqeberha for the Grand Prix 2 Invitational meeting, which served as preparation for the African Junior Championships, which will be hosted in Cairo. Morris is waiting to learn her qualification fate.
The big event she’s aiming for in 2025, however, is the Junior World Championships, to be swum in Romania in August.
“It’s certainly going to be a busy couple of months. I’m just hoping I get selected to represent South Africa at the junior champs in Cairo. The main goal is to qualify for Junior Worlds in Romania. That would mean a lot to me.” she admitted.
When asked about her future endeavours and possibly representing Team SA at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Morris said: “It would be an absolute honour to represent my country at the Olympics. I think that’s every swimmer’s dream.
“However, my coach and I have chatted a lot, and we want to take it one season at a time.
“I’m trying not to focus my energy on the future but investing all of it into the present. We are taking things one step at a time.”
