Swimming at the African Games

Swimming has been part of African Games since its inaugural edition in 1965 and has continued to feature prominently at the competition in each of its subsequent editions.

Swimming at the African Games

Swimming
First event	1965 Brazzaville
Occur every	four years
Last event	2023 Accra
Best	South Africa (RSA)

Editions

Games	Year	Host city	Countries	Swimmers			Events			Best nation
				Men	Women	Total	Men	Women	Mixed
1	1965	Brazzaville			—		8	—	—	United Arab Republic
2	1973	Lagos					13	9	—	Egypt
3	1978	Algiers					13	13	—	Tunisia
4	1987	Nairobi					16	16	—	Tunisia
5	1991	Cairo					16	16	—	Egypt
6	1995	Harare					16	16	—	South Africa
7	1999	Johannesburg	18			128	16	16	—	South Africa
8	2003	Abuja	21	63	54	117	20	20	—	South Africa[1]
9	2007	Algiers	19			121	20	20	—	South Africa
10	2011	Maputo	25				20	20	—	South Africa
11	2015	Brazzaville					20	20	2	South Africa
12	2019	Rabat	37				20	20	2	South Africa
13	2023	Accra					20	20	2	South Africa

Medal table

As of 2023:

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	South Africa (RSA)	201	135	104	440
2	Egypt (EGY)	108	115	104	327
3	Tunisia (TUN)	52	37	48	137
4	Algeria (ALG)	36	58	74	168
5	Zimbabwe (ZIM)	21	28	31	80
6	Kenya (KEN)	6	7	8	21
7	Nigeria (NGR)	4	12	15	31
8	Mauritius (MRI)	3	4	3	10
9	Seychelles (SEY)	2	4	9	15
10	Namibia (NAM)	2	3	12	17
11	Madagascar (MAD)	1	4	8	13
12	Angola (ANG)	1	1	6	8
13	Senegal (SEN)	0	2	9	11
14	Botswana (BOT)	0	2	3	5
15	Ghana (GHA)	0	1	3	4
16	Ivory Coast (CIV)	0	1	1	2
17	Mozambique (MOZ)	0	1	0	1
18	Zambia (ZAM)	0	0	9	9
19	Morocco (MAR)	0	0	5	5
20	Uganda (UGA)	0	0	1	1
Totals (20 entries)		437	415	453	1,305

Games records

All records were set in finals unless noted otherwise. All times are swum in a long-course (50m) pool.

Men

Event	Time		Name	Nationality	Date	Meet	Location	Ref
50m freestyle	22.02		Ali Khalafalla	Egypt	13 March 2024	2023 African Games	Accra, Ghana	[2]
100m freestyle	48.97		Oussama Sahnoune	Algeria	21 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[3]
200m freestyle	1:47.77		Devon Brown	South Africa	6 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[4]
400m freestyle	3:48.06		Ahmed Akram	Egypt	9 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[5]
800m freestyle	7:55.36		Ahmed Akram	Egypt	7 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[6]
1500m freestyle	15:11.68		Ahmed Akram	Egypt	10 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[7]
50m backstroke	25.26		Mohamed Samy	Egypt	23 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[8]
100m backstroke	55.02		Abdellah Ardjoune	Algeria	24 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[9]
200m backstroke	1:59.03		Martin Binedell	South Africa	21 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[3]
50m breaststroke	27.18		Cameron van der Burgh	South Africa	7 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[10]
100m breaststroke	1:00.19		Cameron van der Burgh	South Africa	6 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[11]
200m breaststroke	2:14.21		Alaric Basson	South Africa	23 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[12]
50m butterfly	23.51		Chad le Clos	South Africa	8 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[13]
100m butterfly	51.24		Chad le Clos	South Africa	7 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[14]
200m butterfly	1:56.37		Chad le Clos	South Africa	9 September 2011	2011 All-Africa Games	Maputo, Mozambique	[15][16]
200m individual medley	2:00.70		Chad le Clos	South Africa	10 September 2011	2011 All-Africa Games	Maputo, Mozambique	[17][18]
400m individual medley	4:16.88		Chad le Clos	South Africa	6 September 2011	2011 All-Africa Games	Maputo, Mozambique	[19][20]
4×100m freestyle relay	3:19.42		Leith Shankland Chad le Clos Gideon Louw Darian Townsend	South Africa	8 September 2011	2011 All-Africa Games	Maputo, Mozambique	[21][22]
4×200m freestyle relay	7:18.62		Brent Szurdoki  (1:51.94) Calvyn Justus  (1:50.68) Devon Brown  (1:48.05) Chad le Clos  (1:47.95)	South Africa	8 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[23]
4×100m medley relay	3:40.24		Martin Binedell  (56.46) Alaric Basson  (1:00.70) Ryan Coetzee  (53.18) Douglas Erasmus  (49.90)	South Africa	24 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[24]

Legend: # – Record awaiting ratification by CANA; WR – World record; AF – African record;
Records not set in finals: h – heat; sf – semifinal; r – relay 1st leg; rh – relay heat 1st leg; b – B final; † – en route to final mark; tt – time trial

Women

Event	Time		Name	Nationality	Date	Meet	Location	Ref
50m freestyle	24.72		Farida Osman	Egypt	13 March 2024	2023 African Games	Accra, Ghana	[25]
100m freestyle	55.13		Erin Gallagher	South Africa	21 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[3]
200m freestyle	1:59.84		Karin Prinsloo	South Africa	6 September 2011	2011 All-Africa Games	Maputo, Mozambique	[19][26]
400m freestyle	4:15.53		Melissa Corfe	South Africa	July 2007	2007 All-Africa Games	Algiers, Algeria
800m freestyle	8:43.89		Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	July 2007	2007 All-Africa Games	Algiers, Algeria
1500m freestyle	16:47.61		Catherine van Rensburg	South Africa	9 March 2024	2023 African Games	Accra, Ghana	[27]
50m backstroke	28.76		Caitlin de Lange	South Africa	11 March 2024	2023 African Games	Accra, Ghana	[28]
100m backstroke	1:00.86		Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	7 September 2011	2011 All-Africa Games	Maputo, Mozambique	[29]
200m backstroke	2:10.66		Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	July 2007	2007 All-Africa Games	Algiers, Algeria
50m breaststroke	31.91		Simone Moll	South Africa	12 March 2024	2023 African Games	Accra, Ghana	[30]
100m breaststroke	1:07.58		Penny Heyns	South Africa	September 1999	1999 All-Africa Games	Johannesburg, South Africa
200m breaststroke	2:28.00		Penny Heyns	South Africa	September 1999	1999 All-Africa Games	Johannesburg, South Africa
50m butterfly	25.94		Farida Osman	Egypt	22 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[31]
100m butterfly	58.79		Farida Osman	Egypt	23 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[32]
200m butterfly	2:12.46		Mandy Loots	South Africa	10 September 2011	2011 All-Africa Games	Maputo, Mozambique	[17][33]
200m individual medley	2:13.02		Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	July 2007	2007 All-Africa Games	Algiers, Algeria
400m individual medley	4:39.91		Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	July 2007	2007 All-Africa Games	Algiers, Algeria
4×100m freestyle relay	3:48.47		Farida Osman  (55.86) Nour El-Gendy  (57.53) Lojine Hamed  (57.54) Nadine Abdallah  (57.54)	Egypt	12 March 2024	2023 African Games	Accra, Ghana	[34]
4×200m freestyle relay	8:20.28		Rene Warnes  (2:04.51) Marlies Ross  (2:06.57) Charlise Oberholzer  (2:08.04) Karin Prinsloo  (2:01.16)	South Africa	6 September 2015	2015 African Games	Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo	[35]
4×100m medley relay	4:10.90			South Africa	July 2007	2007 All-Africa Games	Algiers, Algeria

Legend: # – Record awaiting ratification by CANA; WR – World record; AF – African record;
Records not set in finals: h – heat; sf – semifinal; r – relay 1st leg; rh – relay heat 1st leg; b – B final; † – en route to final mark; tt – time trial

Mixed relay

Event	Time		Name	Nationality	Date	Meet	Location	Ref
4×100m freestyle relay	3:31.24	AF	Douglas Erasmus  (50.42) Ryan Coetzee  (49.74) Emma Chelius  (55.87) Erin Gallagher  (55.21)	South Africa	23 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[36]
4×100m medley relay	3:50.76		Martin Binedell  (55.43) Michael Houlie  (59.96) Erin Gallagher  (58.98) Emma Chelius  (56.39)	South Africa	22 August 2019	2019 African Games	Casablanca, Morocco	[31]

Legend: # – Record awaiting ratification by CANA; WR – World record; AF – African record;
Records not set in finals: h – heat

See also

• List of African Games medalists in swimming
• List of African Games medalists in swimming (women)