Sascoc is working against its own athletes

If senseless, simplistic ideals are not eradicated from South African sport over the next few years, Olympic codes are going to lose the last few bricks holding them together and they are likely to collapse in a pile of forgotten rubble.

The mantra, which has been pushed by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) in recent years, insisting it will take “no passengers” to major multi-sport Games, was exposed with all its nasty flaws over the last couple of weeks.

While Sascoc had no say in the SA team selection for the IAAF World Championships, the mother body’s insistence that it will continue to tighten the screws (stringent criteria will again be applied for next year’s Commonwealth Games) has seemingly filtered through to its member federations.

Ahead of the Rio Olympics last year, it became clear that few codes were willing to fight for their athletes, with presidents of sport bodies buckling to Sascoc’s demands and agreeing to shut the door on those who qualified through African Championship events.

A number of individuals and teams, including the national men’s and women’s hockey squads, missed out on crucial exposure at the Rio Olympics last year.

This creates a downward spiral for all involved, which affects both high performance and development.

And with Sascoc still tooting its “no passengers” horn in the background, Athletics South Africa (ASA) has taken the ongoing saga to a whole new level.

After drawing a line which required athletes to achieve worldclass performances just to qualify for the World Championships which started in London last night, ASA made all sorts of nonsensical squiggles, pulling the line back for some, completely removing it for others, and refusing to budge it for most.

The result is that the national team competing at the global @wesbotton championships consists of multiple A-qualifiers, five B-qualifiers and three athletes who did not qualify at all, while 14 who did qualify were left at home.

Making matters even worse was the confirmation that the organisers had agreed to cover all costs of athletes who achieved the required criteria.

The reasoning offered by ASA for the decision to leave so many athletes behind was simply bizarre. By stretching the bar, they insisted, they could force athletes to lift their game.

South African athletics, however, has never been as healthy from a high-performance perspective, and they would have to stretch the bar beyond the realms of reality to push the likes of Wayde van Niek- erk, Luvo Manyonga and Caster Semenya any harder than they already push themselves.

What ASA is doing, by cutting off more than 30% of athletes who qualified, is stunting the development of athletes who are becoming increasingly despondent, with some of them even discussing the possibility of retirement.

By denying an international athlete exposure at the highest level, you are denying them potential sponsors and crucial experience.

You’re also denying budding young athletes at home the opportunity to be motivated by their local heroes who, regardless of what ASA says, are quite capable of evoking inspiration without progressing beyond qualifying rounds.

South African sport needs to be developed and nurtured, and that starts with inclusion and participation.

Olympic codes which are struggling to find corporate backing are not going to get anywhere with a selective, exclusive approach.

At the recent World Aquatics Championships, Swimming SA faced financial constraints but gave the qualified athletes the option to pay their own way if they wanted to take part.

That’s not ideal by any means, but at least they gave swimmers the option by opening the door for them to compete.

Their athletics counterparts had the resources to send every athlete who qualified, but they shut the door anyway.

For a federation that offers very little support to athletes competing on the international circuit, due to financial constraints, the least they can do is offer an opportunity when it is made available.

If things don’t change in the boardroom, the country’s Olympic codes will eventually collapse.

Administrators can puff their chests out all they want, but they are not nearly as crucial to the progress of any code as the athletes or the fans.

We can only hope sanity prevails and they realise that before it’s too late.