Road to London 2012 COUNTDOWN

A rich Paralympic history South Africa's history in the Paralympics goes back as far as the 1964 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan where they made their debut. A small team of just nine athletes mad the trip east to compete in the four codes of archery, athletics, swimming and weightlifting. Ironically, the South African Paralympians were making their debut just after their ablebodied counterparts had been barred from competing at the Olympics as punishment for the reigning government's apartheid policies. The country continued to compete at the following Paralympics until 1976 when Netherlands, the host country of the 1980 Paralympics, declared SA's participation as undesirable. The next time South Africa returned to Paralympic competition was in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain, along with the ablebodied team's return from isolation For a debut performance they punched above their weight to finish sixth on the medal table with 19 medals. These medals were made up of eight gold, eight silver and three bronze medals. Topping the medals table were the United States with a huge haul of 123 medals (50 gold, 41 silver and 32 bronze). Interestingly enough, South Africa ended behind the then Rhodesia on the medals table, our northern neighbour winning one more medal (17) – 10 gold, five silver and two bronzes. History tells us that South Africa's gold medallists in 1964 were GP Marais in archery (Men's St. Nicholas Round open), I Marinowitz in archery (Women's St. Nicholas Round open), Daniel Erasmus in athletics (Men's Discus A and Men's Shot Put A), M Forty in discus (Women's Club Throw B and Women's Discus B), A Somerset in swimming (Women's 25-metre Breaststroke incomplete class 1), and B Humble in weightlifting (Men's Middleweight). Just nine sporting codes were contested at the inaugural Paralympics and these were archery, athletics, the strangely named dartchery, snooker, swimming, para-table tennis, weightlifting, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair fencing. The newest event at the '64 Paralympics was that of wheelchair racing in the shape of a 60m race for both men and women. South African involvement in the Winter Paralympics came a good while later than their Summer Games debut but as history would have it, was also in Japan – Nagano to be exact – in 1998. They weren't the first African country though, Uganda having made their debut in 1976. Since then though South Africa have been represented at even Winter Paralymics since 1998, albeit with only one para-athlete in the shape of alpine skier Bruce Warner. The country still awaits its first Paralympic Winter Games medal. Fast forward to the 2008 Olympics and South Africa brought back 30 medals, 21 of which were gold. Not bad going at all for a relatively small team of 66 athletes. This is the high standard of excellence that the South African sports public have come to expect from our Paralympians. Two names dominated the Beijing Paralympics and are sure to do so again in London. In the pool Natalie du Toit won five gold medals while on the track Oscar Pistorius raced to three gold medals. A host of other South Africans won two medals apiece as South ended sixth on the medals table.