Melissa Jane Corfe (born 20 January 1986) is a South African swimmer, who specialised in freestyle and backstroke events. She is a multiple-time South African champion and record holder for her respective events. Corfe represented her nation South Africa at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, and has won a total of five medals, including three golds in the women's freestyle (100, 200, and 400 m), at the

2007 All-Africa Games The 9th All-Africa Games took place between 11 and 23 July 2007 in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. Algiers is the first city to hold All-Africa Games for a second time. The 1978 All-Africa Games were held there. Besides Algeria, only Nige ...

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

, Algeria. She also set two national records (both long and short course), as a member of the South African swimming team, in the freestyle and medley relays, at the 2008 FINA World Short Course Championships in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England.

2008 Summer Olympics

Corfe competed for South Africa in five swimming events at the

in Beijing. She crushed three national records and cleared FINA A-standards each in the 200 m freestyle (1:59.76), 400 m freestyle (4:08.70), and 200 m backstroke (2:10.03) at the South African Championships four months earlier in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

to assure her selection to the nation's Olympic swimming team. On the first night of the Games, Corfe teamed up with

Wendy Trott Wendy Trott (born 14 February 1990) is a South African swimmer. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the Women's 400 and Women's 800 metre freestyle, finishing 9th in the latter and the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Women's 400 and Wo ...

Mandy Loots Amanda Toni "Mandy" Loots (born 3 August 1978 in Gwelo, Rhodesia) is an Olympic and national-record-holding swimmer from South Africa. Swimming career Loots swam for South Africa at the 1996, 2000 and 2008 Olympics. Despite being of South A ...

, and

Katheryn Meaklim Katheryn Meaklim (born 20 July 1989 in Johannesburg) is a South African swimmer who mainly competes in the Women's 200 and 400 m individual medley. At the 2008 Summer Olympics she competed in the 200 m butterfly, the 400 m individual medley and t ...

in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. Swimming the lead-off leg in heat two, Corfe recorded a fastest split of 55.93 seconds, but the South African foursome had to settle for last place out of fifteen registered nations with a total time of 3:51.14. The following night, in the

400 m freestyle 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, Corfe headed into the 750-metre turn with a marvelous fourth-place swim in the last of six heats, but faded down the stretch on a sprint challenge to pick up the sixth spot and seventeenth overall in 4:10.54. On the third night of the prelims, Corfe failed to break a two-minute barrier in the 200 m freestyle. She lost in a close race against fourth-place finalist Paulina Barzycka of Poland by three hundredths of a second (0.03), dropping to sixth place and thirty-third overall in 2:00.95. In her third and final individual event, 200 m backstroke, Corfe cruised to seventh place in heat four with a 2:12.64, just six seconds behind the defending Olympic champion

Kirsty Coventry Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (born 16 September 1983) is a Zimbabwean swimmer and politician currently serving as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe since September 2018. A former Olympic swimmer and wo ...

of the neighbouring Zimbabwe, sharing a twenty-second place tie with Ukraine's

Kateryna Zubkova Kateryna Mikhailivna Zubkova ( uk, Катери́на Миха́йлівна Зубко́ва) (born July 14, 1988 in Kharkiv) is a Ukrainian swimmer. Career She has won national titles for Ukraine eight times, and is a former European breastst ...

in the prelims. On the last day of the preliminaries, Corfe reunited her South African teammates Loots,

Suzaan van Biljon Suzaan van Biljon (born 26 April 1988 in Bloemfontein, South Africa) is an Olympic-swimmer from South Africa. She swam for South Africa at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and as of June 2009 holds both African and South African records. She holds t ...

, and

Lize-Mari Retief Lize-Mari Retief (born 30 November 1986 in Bloemfontein, South Africa) is an Olympic and national-record-holding swimmer from South Africa. She swam for South Africa at the 2008 Olympics. At the 2008 South African Nationals in April, she set 3 ...

in the 4 × 100 m medley relay. Swimming the backstroke leg, Corfe posted a split of 1:02.62 to give the South African foursome a twelfth-place overall finish in the prelims with a total time of 4:04.20.

References

External links

NBC Olympics Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corfe, Melissa 1986 births Living people South African female swimmers Olympic swimmers for South Africa Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics South African female freestyle swimmers South African female backstroke swimmers Sportspeople from Durban African Games gold medalists for South Africa African Games medalists in swimming African Games silver medalists for South Africa Competitors at the 2007 All-Africa Games 20th-century South African women 21st-century South African women