The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver

Cameron van der Burgh Awarded for:

His display of dignity and grace in his performance on international stages as a swimmer while firmly rooted in South Africa and training at home. He has shown determination and strength and has portrayed continuous excellence in the field of aquatic sport.

Profile of Cameron van der Burgh

Cameron van der Burgh was born 25 May 1988 in Pretoria. Van der Burgh went to Glenstantia Primary for his elementary schooling and matriculated from Crawford College in 2006. Currently he is studying Financial Management part-time through the University of South Africa and is interested in becoming an entrepreneur after his swimming career.

He is one of the few South African swimmers who chose to train and be based in his home country to show his patriotism. A world-record holder in individual male Olympics, he has also won a number of World Championship medals since his debut in 2007. He represented South Africa at the 2008 Summer Olympics and at the 2012 Summer Olympics where he won the Gold Medal at the 100m breaststroke setting a new world record.

Van der Burgh obtained his first world long-course record (27,06 seconds) in the 50m breaststroke, in the semi-finals at the South African National Championship in April 2009. With this feat, he managed to cut off 0,12 seconds of Oleg Lisogor’s old world record set in 2002. He won the world title in the same year at the Rome Championship, also in the 50m breaststroke. At the 2010 Commonwealth Games he won the 50m breaststroke in a time of 27,18 seconds – a new record. He also won the 100m world title at the 2010 shortcourse World Championship.

Van der Burgh won the 100m breaststroke Gold Medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in a new world record time of 58,46 seconds, and paid tribute to the late world champion, Alexander Dale Oen, afterwards.

He combines his God-given talent with social responsibility by ensuring that those less fortunate are not forgotten. He has been linked to a few charities and uses his fortune to fund feeding schemes for underprivileged children in Alexandra, near Johannesburg. He has made many appearances around the country giving motivational talks.