Harare, Zimbabwe - 10th July 2021.

1. 00:00 Various swimmer Donata Katai in training in swimming pool

2. 00:14 SOUNDBITE (English): Donata Katai, Zimbabwe Olympic swimmer:

"Well. I started swimming when I was six, because we had like an infant swimming gala at the school I was at."

3. 00:24 Donata Katai in swimming pool

4. 00:32 SOUNDBITE (English): Donata Katai, Zimbabwe Olympic swimmer:

"I think the first record I broke when I was eight at the Les Brown Pool was probably the most  memorable one for me."

Q, "Which one was that?"

"33-yards butterfly, yeah because obviously that's when I kind of realised that I was you know good at swimming."

5. 00:54 Various Donata Katai in swimming pool with coach Kathy Lobb watching her

6. 01:08 SOUNDBITE (English): Donata Katai, Zimbabwe Olympic swimmer:

"I think swimming in Zimbabwe, you know there's a lot of people of colour that take part in the sport so it's kind of become normal for me."

7. 01:20 Various of Donata Katai in swimming pool

8. 01:30 SOUNDBITE (English): Donata Katai, Zimbabwe Olympic swimmer:

"I feel like we swim in some very different environments you know because in America obviously there's not many people of colour that swim whereas in Zimbabwe, the majority of people who swim at the moment are people of colour. So, I guess her (Simone Manuel) story would be very different from mine because I wouldn't say I'm part of a minority group in Zimbabwe because obviously there's lots of people of colour that swim."

9. 02:05 Donata Katai in Swimming pool

10. 02:13 SOUNDBITE (English): Donata Katai, Zimbabwe Olympic swimmer:

"I remember the London Games and the Rio one, but before that I was a bit too young."

Q. "What about Kirsty, what do you know about her swimming career?"

"Well obviously, she (Kristy Coventry)'s one of a kind, she is the most decorated African Olympian. She swam many races and she did really, really well, got multiple gold medals."

11. 02:40 Donata Katai in swimming pool

12. 02:50 SOUNDBITE (English): Kathy Lobb, Donata Katai's coach:

"Every coach's dream is to have a swimmer coming through and taking them to the Olympics. I guess I'm in what you'd call maybe the twilight of my swimming career. I don't know, hopefully I'm not, but some people seem to think I might be."

13. 03:04 Donata with her coach

14. 03:08 SOUNDBITE (English): Kathy Lobb, Donata Katai's coach:

"Each child is an individual. Yes, she (Katai) does the same stroke as Kirsty, and she's happened to beat a couple of Kirsty's records, but each child is an individual. Certainly, I'm not comparing her to Kirsty. I think, who knows, when she goes to university, she may well change strokes altogether. In America, they pull people onto the team according to what stroke they need and she has a very good butterfly as well. At the South Africa Junior Champs she's won several medals in both backstroke and butterfly so it may be a change of stroke altogether."

Q. "What do you think she should be targeting in the Olympics?"

"Just to get a PB, or as close to her PB as possible. I'm not sure she'll do a PB even, but we want her to get as close as possible. As I say, the preparation has just been very, very difficult and I've been playing around trying to make the best of it and trying to get the best out of her. But it hasn't been ideal. I'm not making excuses, she's going in the best condition she could be at this stage and yes, she will give it

her all."

15. 04:19 Donata Katai outside swimming pool

SOURCE: SNTV

DURATION: 04:23

The southern African nation of Zimbabwe is sending a Black swimmer to the Olympics, the first from her country to go the Games.

Seventeen-year-old Donata Katai won African youth titles and broke youth records once held by two-time Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry, who is not only Zimbabwe's most successful swimmer but also Africa's most decorated Olympian.

Tokyo is probably too early for the teenager to succeed Coventry in the way she really wants, by stepping onto the Olympic podium. But, for now, Katai does represent a deeper breakthrough for Zimbabwe.

Her country is 99% Black and it's taken until 2021 for a Black swimmer to represent Zimbabwe at the Olympics.

Simone Manuel's gold medal in the 100-metre freestyle at the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was a seminal moment for Black swimmers. But the American's success also sparked a conversation about why Black swimmers are so underrepresented.

That's historically been the case in southern Africa, where the most successful swimmers — like Coventry and South Africans Chad le Clos and Cameron van de Burgh — are all white. It's maybe starker because they come from majority-Black countries.

But while swimming in the United States might be still struggling to diversify, Katai said it isn't anymore in Zimbabwe.

"There's a lot of people of colour that take part in the sport (in Zimbabwe)," Katai said. "It's kind of becoming normal for me in Zimbabwe. I feel like we swim in very different environments because in America there are not many people of colour that swim. In Zimbabwe, the majority of people that swim at the moment are people of colour. I guess her (Manuel's) story would be very different from mine."

Katai's story is also very different from another Black African swimmer. Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea gained brief worldwide fame, and the ironic nickname Eric the Eel, for being so bad at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. That stereotype is definitely not applicable here.

Katai has been swimming competitively since, at the age of 6, she realised she was pretty good at it. She's been tracked after her talent peaked the interest of some of the country's top coaches at the age of 8. Her family is solidly middle class, her current coach, Kathy Lobb, stressed. She is not underprivileged. And she's the first swimmer the veteran coach has taken all the way to the Olympics.

"It's every coach's dream to have a swimmer coming through and taking them to the Olympics," Lobb said

Katai won gold medals in the 50-metre and 100-metre backstroke at the 2019 African Junior Championships in Tunisia. The same year, she broke Coventry's longstanding 100-metre backstroke national youth record. That's the event she'll compete in at the Tokyo Games.

Of all the comparisons, Katai is quite happy with the Coventry one.

Katai and Coventry know each other, but not very well. They've only spoken a couple of times at meets, Katai said, but Coventry has been completely supportive.

Coventry was also 17 when she swam at her first Olympics in 2000. She didn't win a medal, but she returned four years later to claim a gold, a silver and a bronze and start that record-breaking haul for Africa.

Tokyo is the next step for Katai and it's pure excitement now after the dream to compete against the world's best was delayed a year by the coronavirus pandemic.