'Not enough black swimmers'
There hasn’t been a black woman champion in post-apartheid SA
THE COMPOSITION of South African swimming teams is so white, you’d be forgiven for assuming that blacks “just can’t swim competitively”. No black swimmer has yet represented South Africa at an Olympic Games. Blacks can and do swim competitively in South Africa. Black swimmers existed as anti-apartheid people in sport.
Not only were they provincial and anti-apartheid national champions, they also achieved swimming times comparable to, and sometimes faster than, advantaged white swimmers.
Over the past two years, I’ve watched and documented the South African national senior swimming championships in Durban, and some provincial and national junior events.
These events are very white: from the officials to the swimmers, parents and coaches. Are there blacks participating in these events? Yes. And there are some superb emerging black junior swimmers.
But will the talent of 15-year-old swimmer Khwezi Duma of Durban be nurtured and turned into world-class prowess?
Duma has already been identified by Swimming SA as a swimmer to be recognised and selected for international competition. She has represented South Africa in junior and senior swimming competitions and is a leading swimmer in her age group category. However, the junior black swimmer knows she must overcome the mental hurdle and believe she can win.
Swimming in South Africa is very white. Whiteness, white privilege and white arrogance dominate at national events.
Swimmers of all colours are friendly to each other. They cheer on their teammates of whatever colour, talk to each other in the warm-up pool and seemingly look like a rainbow swimming family.
But look deeper, and outside of this assumed swimming jingoism is the prevalence of whiteness galore – and strangulation by whiteness.
I look out for the black swimmers, especially the girl swimmers, because I am centred on black girls and women in sport in my sport narratives and activism. I scan the electronic board. I get my camera ready.
I notice Duma is not performing as expected. I ask her mother, one of the few black parents at the championship, what’s up? She tells me Duma is recovering from a terrible bout of flu.
Duma doesn’t show the strain or pressure. It’s on a later day of the championship that she features. It’s in the girls U18 50m backstroke (Duma’s specialist race), that she surges through the water at Durban’s Aquatic Centre.
She is seeded No 2 for the final, a heat performance for which she should have received a medal in the SA junior final. But she finished fourth, just outside the medals.
Talent is one aspect to have in swimming, but it’s not enough. You’ve got to have the mental toughness to win. The black girl swimmers are on their own, paving their personal swimming journeys. There hasn’t been a black woman champion in post-apartheid South Africa. Many of the talented black junior swimmers go to the “best” coaches, who happen to be white males. Duma has been with some of South Africa’s best white male coaches in Durban and Johannesburg.
Can these white male coaches also bring out the talent in the black girl swimmers and take them on to the Olympic and world championship podiums? Are the black girl swimmers being looked after and developed like any other talented swimmer? Most importantly, do white male coaches believe a black girl swimmer can be world class? For now, it’s black swimmers against the clock and South African swimming’s whiteness.
TALENT IS ONE ASPECT TO HAVE IN SWIMMING, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH. YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE THE MENTAL TOUGHNESS TO WIN