South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker has won silver in the 100m women’s butterfly in her first Olympic finals.

Schoenmaker’s victory is the first by a female swimmer from South Africa in 21 years.

She hopes the medal, which is the country’s first at these games, can bring some joy back home after days of violence.

“I really hope this brings a little bit of hope for South Africa and we are obviously going through a tough time at the moment so that shows us there’s hope in South Africa,” she said.

Riots broke out in parts of South Africa on 8 July following the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma. The violence left more than 300 dead and many businesses destroyed.

Schoenmaker believes sports can play a role as the country recovers from the turbulent few weeks during the Olympics.

“Obviously, we know sport unites countries we have seen it with the rugby world cup so hopefully the Olympics does the same,” Schoenmaker said.

In 1995 the Rugby World Cup home win was seen as a tool to heal divisions as the country came out of a punishing apartheid era with Nelson Mandela’s famous quote, that sport could change the world.

The country’s third Rugby World Cup trophy in 2019 was also seen to transcend sport as it was led by Siya Kolisi, the country’s first black rugby captain.