Education
University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
She broke her first world record, the 100 m breaststroke, in Durban in March 1996. During the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York, Heyns set the 50 m breaststroke world record. In 1999, Heyns set a spate of eleven world records in three months, swimming at events on three different continents.
She was named by Swimming World magazine as the Female World Swimmer of the Year in 1996 and 1999.
Heyns retired from competitive swimming in 2001. She has also completed an autobiography.
Heyns was voted 52nd in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004.
Heyns was the youngest member of the South African Olympic team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She was also a member of the South African Olympic team at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Currently (2004) Heyns is an athlete"s commission member of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), a businesswoman, a motivational and public speaker as well as a television presenter.