The future also looks bright, with Takundanashe Gondo amongst the emerging talent to drive the sport forward. There are other notable young swimmers, Adrian Robinson and Maxine Egner, who are currently based overseas. Gondo is proving that he has a bright future in the sport after he emerged with four gold medals and a bronze at the 2025 Zimbabwe Senior National Swimming Championships held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, over the weekend. He also set six new personal best times. Gondo, 20, was born to a Motswana father and a Zimbabwean mother. “I train at Stingrays Swimming Club in Francistown, a Botswana Swimming Sports Association (BSSA) affiliate. The club is based at John Mackenzie School. I started swimming at five-years-old under the tutelage of my father,” he told MmegiSport this week.
Gondo’s first big swimming gala was at the age of seven when he won a gold medal in the boys Under-8 25-metre breaststroke at the BSSA North vs South Conference Heads of Private Schools (CHOPS) primary schools swimming gala in 2012. In 2014, CHOPS changed its name to the Independent Schools Association of Botswana (ISAB). Gondo said the event marked his arrival in the waters. Since then, he has been a member of the North Botswana Primary Schools swimming team, winning numerous medals in the process. “In 2017, in my final year of primary school, I was nominated the boys' captain for the northern schools' swimming team. In that very same year, I made my national swimming debut, representing Botswana at the CANA Zone IV Africa Swimming Championships in Zimbabwe. CANA has now changed to Africa Aquatics Zone IV. Ever since 2017, I have been a regular member of the national team. I have represented my country in six tours,” he said.
