More in the tank for Sunette
Javelin star insists she has not reached her best.
Having narrowly missed out on the podium by finishing fourth at the 2012 London Olympics, Sunette Viljoen’s performance at the Rio Games four years later may have been enough reason for most athletes to celebrate with unbridled joy.
After securing the silver medal in Rio, however, Viljoen’s immediate reaction was hardly jubilant, and her initial comments to the South African media contingent in the mixed zone reflected her high standards.
“I feel so overwhelmed,” she admitted, shaking her head as she considered what she could have done differently.
“I was so close to the gold medal. It was right there until the end.”
One of the country’s most successful female athletes in any code for more than a decade, Viljoen has racked up an impressive list of achievements.
Initially an elite competitor in an entirely different sport, she played 18 matches for the SA women’s cricket team.
However, after making her debut at the age of 17 and competing at the 2000 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand, she opted to focus on cultivating her talent in the javelin throw discipline.
And while her 13-year-old son Henre has since become a keen young cricketer himself, with Viljoen proudly proclaiming herself as his No 1 fan, South African athletics has benefited greatly from her decision to hone her spear-throwing skills.
In an elite career which has spanned 16 years, the 35-year-old athlete has earned five African titles, two World Student Games gold medals, four Commonwealth Games medals, two World Championships medals and an Olympic silver.
Easily the best women’s javelin thrower the continent has produced, she holds the African record of 69.35m, which plac- es her nearly six metres clear of the next best thrower on the South African alltime list and less than three metres short of the 72.28m world record held by Czech athlete Barbora Spotakova.
Neither her personal life nor athletics career have always been plain sailing, however, and Viljoen has had to climb some significant mountains in recent years, often without receiving much support.
In 2013, after revealing to her family that she was gay, Viljoen was ostracised by many of her loved ones which resulted in a lengthy period of turmoil in her private life.
She has also repeatedly clashed with governing sport bodies, including the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) and Athletics South Africa (ASA) for an alleged lack of support, and while her claims have been largely dismissed by administrators, she has received widespread support from others for making a stand.
Having faced multiple challenges in her career, Viljoen suffered her latest major setback when she was sidelined by a back injury late last year and was forced to withdraw from the IAAF World Championships in London.
Settled in her private life after finding both love and peace off the track, however, she was determined to fight back, and Viljoen was delighted to regain her form earlier this season by securing the bronze medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
With javelin throwers often achieving tremendous career longevity, Viljoen believes she still has some big heaves in her arm.
“As an athlete I don’t want to settle for second best,” she said before bouncing back from injury.
“I know in my heart I haven’t reached my best.”
Perhaps the most telling tale of her tenacious nature was the quick transformation she showed from disappointed runner-up to satisfied global star while standing in the mixed zone at the Rio Games.
“After the London Olympics, to have kept fighting for another four years and come back to win silver, I couldn’t have asked for more,” she said, glancing back down the tunnel and soaking in the electric atmosphere emanating from the Olympic stadium, reflecting on the journey she had followed and the battles she had won.
“I don’t think people expected me to come back the way I did, and that makes me so much more proud.
“To win silver was a personal victory for me, and that is what I really wanted to achieve.”