Sam to ask Lotto for R100-million for 15 2020 Olympics medals
Sascoc president to ask Lotto to fund athletes for 2020
● Gideon Sam is to ask the National Lotteries Commission for more than R100-million to fund the country’s top athletes for the 2020 Olympics so they can deliver on his ambitious target of 15 medals in Tokyo.
The most gongs won by South Africa at a single Olympics is 10, achieved on only three occasions — at Antwerp 1920, Helsinki 1952 and Rio 2016.
Fifteen seems a lofty goal in comparison, but the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president is adamant that it’s not only realistic, it is conservative.
“We could get more.”
Sam’s dream is to secure R8-million for each of the chosen athletes across several codes, budgeting R2-million for the rest of this year, R4-million for 2019 and R2-million for 2020 in the months before the July 24August 9 showpiece in Japan.
“That’s my wish list,” Sam told the Sunday Times in an interview at the Sascoc headquarters in Johannesburg this week.
He wants a core of five track and field athletes, five swimmers and four rowing crews, which is a minimum of 19 athletes.
He points to his handwritten plan on the whiteboard in his office, which shows he’s targeting three medals each from athletics, swimming and rowing.
Then Sam wants two from triathlon, and one apiece from cycling, wrestling, rugby sevens and Olympic newcomer surfing.
It’s not clear what funding would be requested for individual members of the rowing crews and rugby team, but R8-million per medal works out to R120-million.
While 15 medals would be a magnificent first for South Africa, it would also require a few other unprecedented achievements, such as:
● Rowing having to land more than one medal at a single Games after collecting three gongs from separate Olympics in 2016, London 2012 and Athens 2004;
● Getting two South Africans onto the same podium in at least three events — men’s long jump, men’s 200m and men’s triathlon — a tough order considering SA last did this in 1920; and,
● Requiring nine different codes coming to the medal party simultaneously, almost double SA’s previous best of five sports, in 2016 and 1920.
Only 10 codes are responsible for SA’s 86 medals since 1908.
Sam, in his third and final term as Sascoc president, achieved just half his target of 12 medals for 2012, but the preparation that went into that team contributed to the 10 medals SA bagged four years later.
They might possibly have won more in Brazil but fell short with three fourth places in rowing and swimming.
Track and field is SA’s top code at the moment, popping with huge potential.
They could deliver double their quota of three medals in Tokyo, but that’s assuming everything goes to plan. Wayde van Niekerk must recover fully from his knee injury, and Caster Semenya must either get the IAAF’s revised rules on hyperandrogenism scrapped, or keep winning in spite of them.
Swimmers Chad Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, who captured a combined three medals at each of the past two Olympics, are not getting younger, though they will be joined as medal prospects by new female star Tatjana Schoenmaker and freestyle sprinter Brad Tandy.
Rowing has many young faces, and of the five crews that competed in Rio, not a single combination has remained intact.
The Sunday Times has anticipated SA’s performances at the past two Games by counting the total number of genuine medal hopes and dividing those by two for the expected medal tally.
In 2012 there were 13 contenders, and six made it to the podium; in Rio there were 20 and 10 came in.
Statistically, a quarter of the hopefuls will be downed by injuries, and at least another 25% simply won’t make it.
On that basis South Africa would need 30 contenders to get 15 medals in 2020. On a generous calculation, SA has 20 to 23 medal possibilities for 2020 so far.