Emma Chelius says she brings her swimming career to a close with a real sense of ‘peace and gratitude’. The 28-year-old retired when she swam her final race at the South African Short Course Championship, at the end of September, bringing down the curtain on quite a memorable career in the pool.
She says the fact that she won’t be swimming competitively has sunk in, and she feels incredibly grateful to have had such a storied career.
“I’m just extremely grateful for the swimming journey that I have had up until this point. I think I knew that Paris was most likely always going to be the last stop for me and so I think it has sunk in.”
Just-Retired South African Olympic Swimmer, Emma Chelius
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but more so just with, like, a real sense of peace and gratitude, that this chapter is sort of coming to a close, but that I’ll still be very much involved with swimming.”
Chelius started her swimming journey in KwaZulu-Natal and as she progressed she qualified for Junior Worlds in her matric year. She was then offered a scholarship to study at Stellenbosch University and that is when her career started taking off under coach Karin Hugo.
Since then she has represented South Africa in almost all the big international competitions, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The freestyle swimmer says being able to represent her country on such a big stage was something she will always cherish
“My biggest career highlight was qualifying for Tokyo. For the 2020 Olympic Games and then, making a semifinal and managing to break a national record at the Olympics. I think I was proud of myself for being able to handle that immense pressure of my first Olympics and still just really enjoying the experience.”
Having participated in the Commonwealth Games, Africa Games, and the World Aquatics Championships to name a few, Chelius acquired a wealth of experience and says she has learned some very valuable lessons from her time in the pool.
“I would say the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to trust myself. I think that I’ve learned to trust that I can put in the hard work and that I can hold myself accountable. I trained alone for quite a few years. I had to trust that the work I was putting in, was going to pay off and that I could handle those high-pressure situations, and that I deserved to be on the teams and in the races that I, was in on the international stage, just really trusting that, if I set myself a goal, I can stick to it and I can put the hard work in and make it happen.”
“I’ve learned that it’s really important to surround yourself with great people who lift you and support you, and that the people you surround yourself with have a direct impact on how far you can go in sport and life.”
Another swimmer star also retired earlier this year and that is South Africa’s most decorated Olympian and #gsport19 Athlete of the Year, Tatjana Smith. Chelius says Smith has played a huge role in her life, in the pool as well as out of it.
“Tatjana is incredible. She’s just a magical person, an incredible teammate, a wonderful friend. It’s been such a blessing to share a career, alongside her through all the ups and downs. We made our first national teams, and in very similar times, in 2017 we were at the World Student Games together in 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2019 World Champs together.
“We’ve come through as sort of the senior girls from 2017 when we were both rookies, but it’s just been so special to learn and grow with her and also to celebrate her and just watch her achieve such incredible things and put South Africa on the map. She’s hugely inspirational, not only to her teammates, but I think to the new generation that’s coming through. I’m just so grateful that my swimming path just happened to be at the same time of history as hers because it has been incredibly special to watch.”
Now that Chelius won’t be swimming what will she be up to? Right now, she is hoping to give back to her sport in some way.
“I’m still really hoping to be involved with swimming, but kind of from the outside of the pool. So assisting Swimming South Africa with organising some of the national events, as well as working closely with SuperSport Schools to broadcast some of the school’s swimming action and our up- and-coming next generation of swimming superstars at the school levels, for 2025.”
Swimming in South Africa has been a sport that has managed to succeed despite the setbacks it has faced and has grown in so many ways. Chelius wants to be able to help the sport grow more and be a helping hand to the girls who want to be part of it.
“It’s great to see more women on the national swimming team. The famous line in swimming is in 2016 we had no women, and in 2024 we had more women than men. So that trajectory is growing and we have some incredibly inspiring senior girls on the team now that are great role models for the younger girls coming through.”
“I would say that swimming South Africa is, going to have to play a key role in trying to bring together some more girls relay teams because I think we have a huge, opportunity to, expose some of our girls who might not necessarily qualify individually but would be great on relay teams. Then we also need to look at, the younger generation coming through, through more local competitions.”
“So the Grand Prix’s, African Championships, African Games, those kinds of competitions that are on African soil or home soil, to build up that international experience that they’ll need to perform when they finally go overseas to some of the major competitions.”
Chelius is hoping she is able to focus more on helping to build the profile of South African Swimmers as she believes this can only benefit them in many ways.
“We need to try and raise the profile of swimming as a sport in South Africa. We all considered one of the minority sports, but time and time again we bring home the most medals for Team South Africa at the Olympics.”
“We are one of the major sports internationally but in South Africa, we are seen as a minority sport. So I think if we can increase the exposure of swimming and our swimmers and raise their profiles a little bit, we would attract more corporate investment, which would help our female athletes in particular, to continue with training full-time without having to hold down a full-time job. Or something that’s going to get in the way of them pursuing their goals and dreams in the pool.”
“If we could get some corporate sponsorship on board, then that would be hugely beneficial to keep our high-performance centres going, which fund a lot of the girls that are, you know, come through the pipeline towards national teams and we would be able to see a lot more girls continuing even after they’ve graduated and actually making a career out of swimming.”
The swimmer also paid tribute to gsport and the work it has done and continues to do for women in sport. Chelius shared that her first interview was done with gsport and it was one that she will never forget as it gave her the confidence she needed at the time.
“gsport has honestly been incredible and just going from strength to strength. I’ve been so proud to watch the progress and just the way that they are coming through for our female athletes. Providing exposure and a platform, to share success stories and to, you know, open people’s eyes to the incredible female athletes, managers, coaches, and support staff that we have in this country.
I think the way that gsport has been, working so tirelessly to recognise the incredible achievements of female athletes just goes such a long way. I think there would be a huge hole in our South African media without them. I remember one of my first ever interviews and videos was for gsport and as a young athlete, that was just such a huge, you know, nod that I was doing something right and just really gave me, a little boost of confidence that I wouldn’t have had if it wasn’t for gsport.”
“Thank you to the whole team for everything that you’re doing. It really doesn’t go unnoticed, and we value the fact that you are sharing female athletes or females in general in South Africa, sharing these stories and encouraging us in our journeys.”
Main Photo caption: Emma Chelius says she brings her swimming career to a close with a real sense of ‘peace and gratitude’. The 28-year-old retired when she swam her final race at the South African Short Course Championship, at the end of September, bringing down the curtain on a memorable career in the pool. All Photos: Supplied
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