Roland Schoeman

Roland Schoeman is a South African freestyle and butterfly swimmer, born in Pretoria on 3 July 1980, who later also became a citizen of the United States. He swam for South Africa at four Olympic Games, in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012, and held world records in several sprint events, including the 50 metre butterfly in a long course pool and a number of short course marks. His best Olympic meeting came in Athens in 2004, where he won silver in the 100 metre freestyle, bronze in the 50 metre freestyle and gold as part of South Africa's 4x100 metre freestyle relay, which beat the United States and the Netherlands. He was the first South African to win three medals at a single Games. Beyond the Olympics he collected world championship, Pan American and Commonwealth Games golds, trained at the University of Arizona, and in 2005 turned down a large contract to swim for Qatar. He received a doping ban in 2019 for a banned substance that the Court of Arbitration for Sport later lengthened to two years.