Olympic aftermath Make sport centre of SA universe
Tatjana Schoenmaker notwithstanding, SA had a poor Olympics
The late Barbara Dowell, once the face of synchronised swimming in SA, was a wonderful raconteur with a library of anecdotes.
At the 2016 Olympic trials in Durban she told me of how she had visited London during the 1948 Games, and recounted an amusing tale about one of SA’s marathon runners.
He was lying third as he entered the tunnel into the stadium and, suddenly realising that he, as the about-to-be bronze medallist, would be photographed, decided he needed to make himself presentable.
His swift makeover included fishing out his dentures and replacing them in his mouth. But while doing this, Dowell said with a delighted cackle, he was overtaken and he finished fourth.
An SA athlete did indeed place fourth in that race, though her story might be apocryphal. There’s nothing in articles and reports of that race to suggest that veteran Johannes Coleman, sixth in the Berlin 1936 marathon, was overtaken so late in the day.
True or not, London ’48 is one of the few Games in which SA failed to win a track and field medal.
And unless one of SA’s three men in the marathon this morning wins a medal, Tokyo will be the first time in the eight Games since readmission that athletics would have failed to make the podium.
Athletes won four of SA’s 10 medals at Rio 2016, the most by a single code
(only boxing has done that, at London 1948).
It seemed unimaginable that SA could struggle to make a podium in track and field five years later, yet SA’s four medallists in Rio all missed out on Tokyo glory for different reasons.
Wayde van Niekerk had not regained the form he had before injuring his right knee in a game of tag rugby; Caster Semenya was sunk by new gender rules introduced by World Athletics; Luvo Manyonga, an ex-drug addict in 2016, fell off the wagon at great personal cost; and Sunette Viljoen struggled with injuries and competed without the services of a full-time coach.
One might argue SA was unlucky, yet the signs of trouble were there in Rio. Only one other athlete achieved a top-eight finish there, Akani Simbine in the 100m.
By yesterday morning, only Simbine and
Unless sport becomes the centre of SA’s universe soon, even potential stars will fail to ignite
Kyle Blignaut, the 2018 world under-20 shot put champion, had made top-eight spots in Tokyo. Across all sports, SA won 10 medals and nine top eights in Rio; by yesterday Tokyo had delivered three medals and eight top eights.
It would probably be histrionic to declare SA athletics in crisis, but Tokyo has underlined a major problem of local sport — the lack of proper development programmes. SA’s Olympic campaigns depend upon the individual brilliance of competitors, rather than sporting factories pumping out fresh talent.
SA depends on random bursts of excellence. The only Olympic medals to have come through proper programmes have been rowing and rugby sevens, though ironically both disappointed in Tokyo.
Otherwise it’s always been about individual flair: Penny Heyns, Hestrie Cloete, Chad Le Clos, Semenya, Van Niekerk, Tatjana Schoenmaker. The list goes on.
But even this haphazard system is under threat. One issue is a lack of funding. The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) had to suspend its Operation Excellence (OpEx) programme aimed at Olympic and Paralympic medal hopes at the beginning of last year. It was heavily dependent on Lotto, which has turned the screws on Sascoc since 2017.
The OpEx funding is far from anything resembling fully-fledged sports programmes, but it’s made a difference.
In the build-up to Beijing 2008 there was no funding and Team SA won a single medal. That changed for London 2012 and Rio 2016, with SA winning 16 medals in total, a record haul for two straight Games.
Lotto did support top Olympic and Paralympic athletes over the past year, but that ends next month. Even then, it was highly selective and cannot be considered a substitute for OpEx.
On top of that sports infrastructure is crumbling nationally and that is going to adversely affect the numbers of sports people in future.
SA’s premier swimming competition venue, King’s Park, needs an overhaul, and Roodeplaat Dam, the base of the national rowing squad, has been over- run with water hyacinth for more than a year.
Those are the domain of the government, from municipal to national. The sports ministry should have been knocking down doors at the relevant departments to demand solutions.
Sascoc needs to convince Lotto and government to play ball and cough up, and they would do well to look at starting proper sports development programmes.
This country has plenty of top sports scientists and ace coaches who have masterminded Olympic medals, World Cups and African Champions League trophies and who should lead that process.
SA used to be strong at distance running and boxing, and they’ve produced many top canoeists in non-Games disciplines. Could these sports be revived and reimagined?
The key to doing well at the Olympics is dominating just a few codes while backing the random stars from other sports.
By the end of Friday 22 nations had 10 or more medals in Tokyo. Some of them, like Hungary and New Zealand, have significantly smaller populations than SA. Eight of the Kiwis’ 19 medals had come from rowing and kayaking. Ten of the Hungarians’ 17 gongs came from swimming and kayaking.
A body of coaches and scientists could develop SA’s niche at the Olympics, while boosting
transformation.
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune; SA can’t match Britain’s spend of more than a quarter of a billion pounds per Olympics, but a well purposed R50m or even R40m a year would make a huge difference.
The tragedy of athletics’ poor performance in Tokyo is that track and field has delivered more medallists of colour than all other codes combined. Rowing is the only other sport to have delivered a black Olympic medallist.
SA has won 38 medals since readmission at Barcelona 1992. Track and field athletes have won 14 medals, and eight of those were landed by competitors from previously disadvantaged communities — Hezekiel Sepeng (800m silver, 1996), Josia Thugwane (marathon gold, 1996), Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (800m silver, 2004), Khotso Mokoena (long jump silver, 2008), Semenya (800m gold, 2012 and 2016), Van Niekerk (400m gold, 2016) and Manyonga (long jump silver, 2016).
Unless sport becomes the centre of SA’s universe soon, even potential stars will fail to ignite.