After flirting with retirement a few times, South Africa's Tatjana Smith is finally able to rest.

Listen to this article 6 min Listen to this article 6 min Breaststroke sensation Tatjana Smith is at the peak of her powers. She claimed a gold medal in her slightly less-fancied 100m breaststroke as well as silver in the 200m in the same event at the Olympic Games in Paris.

With those achievements, Smith became South Africa's most decorated Olympic athlete with four medals.

advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove adsButterfly champion Chad le Clos also has four Olympic medals, including his iconic gold in the 200m butterfly when he beat swimming icon Michael Phelps in London in 2012 to add to his three silver medals. Smith, though, has a claim to the throne, with one more gold medal than Le Clos.

In Tokyo three years ago she secured gold in the 200m breaststroke and silver in the 100m.

"She is the highest-decorated Olympian of all sports in South Africa," Penny Heyns said. Heyns is still the only women's or men's athlete to do the breaststroke double at the Olympics when she nabbed gold in the 100m and 200m in Atlanta in 1996.

"As far as where she ranks in terms of the greatest swimmers in the country,...