Cash rolls in for SA’s top medal chances

● After suffering a drought that lasted more than a year, SA’s top Olympic and Paralympic stars are enjoying funding once again.

The recipients are limited to about 20 individuals and three Olympic teams, namely the Blitzboks, the rowers and the men’s 4x100m relay squad.

The Operation Excellence (OpEx) programme run by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) dried up at the end of 2019, leaving unsponsored athletes penniless into the start of 2021.

But the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) eventually stumped up cash following a request from past acting president Aleck Skhosana last year, Sascoc COO Patience Shikwambana said this week.

Fears about cash-strapped Sascoc

It’s not falling under the OpEx umbrella, however, with payments being administered by the Sports Trust over fears that cashstrapped Sascoc would spend the money on operational matters.

At least some of the recipients, who include Wayde van Niekerk, Chad Le Clos, Tatjana Schoenmaker and Ntando Mahlangu, have been given tracksuits with the branding Team NLC, though they won’t be allowed to wear them at the two Tokyo games.

“We’re the main coordinator working with the Sports Trust,” said Shikwambana,

On a race track ... they’re going to be competitive

Leon Fleiser Acting high performance GM

adding payments started in February but had been backdated to October 2020.

Funding ends after the Paralympics.

She declined to say how much Lotto had contributed to the Team NLC project, but said it was not insubstantial. “The money’s not too bad because most of the athletes have really welcomed the funding that they’ve got because it’s covering most of the costs we used to cover as OpEx …

“There was an athlete who was even saying to us that ‘hey, I was about to start looking for a job because we can’t survive, we can’t keep up’. It’s unfortunate that it’s not for everyone.”

Individuals are getting monthly stipends, but the teams were paid once-off.

Acting high performance GM Leon Fleiser said the list of proposed athletes submitted by Sascoc had been longer.

“We gave an initial list and they were coming back [and saying] ‘but your list is very long’ and we had to be critical and go through everything … and look at what you call your big-game players.

“They might not be ranked highly now, but if you put them in a swimming pool or on a race track or on a tennis court, they’re going to be competitive because that’s just their nature. You know who’s a racer.

Some athletes could feel aggrieved

“There may be some athletes that weren’t put on who could feel aggrieved,” he admitted.

Other individual athletes on the list are sprinter Akani Simbine, Rio Olympic triathlon bronze medallist Henri Schoeman, long-jumper Ruswahl Samaai, cyclist Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and 2016 Paralympic double gold medallist Charl du Toit.

One of the notable omissions is surfer Jordy Smith, who declined the funding. “Jordy doesn’t want any funding,” said Fleiser. “He definitely would have got funding [but] he’s like ‘guys, I’ve got sponsors who pay for everything’.”

Currently SA can claim about 12 Olympic medal prospects for Tokyo, which could translate into five or so podium finishes, though with the lack of competition over the 13 months, it’s impossible to be sure in all cases.

Team SA boasted more than 20 prospects heading into the Rio Games and they came back with 10 medals and four fourth places.

Sascoc has identified 19 Paralympic medal hopes.

Fleiser expected the Para athletics team that cleaned up at the junior world championships to be ready to shine at Paris 2024.