SA women emerging from the men’s shadow

While many of the headlines were again stolen by the country’s elite men, the impact made by South African women at last week’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games was spectacular, and it offered a beaming ray of hope that a long-running battle to raise the standards of women’s sport may finally be paying dividends.

The statistics in recent years are shocking, and in a traditionally patriarchal society, the fight for equality in women’s sport has wobbled and hobbled along without a great deal of success, despite moves made by event organisers, sponsors and administrators to give female athletes equal opportunities.

Eight of the nation’s 40 medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow were earned by women, and they bagged two of the country’s 10 podium performances at the 2016 Rio Olympics, with female athletes contributing 20% of the medals on both occasions.

In Gold Coast, however, while the SA tally slipped to a total of 37, women secured 10 medals (27%).

Only a slight improvement, perhaps, but an improvement nonetheless, and at this stage any step forward is a big step forward.

Alarmingly, none of the 30 medals raked in by SA swimmers at the World Aquatics Championships over the last two decades have been secured by women.

Local women have also earned no medals in the pool at the last four editions of the Olympic Games, while their male compatriots have racked up a total of nine.

Breaststroke specialist Tatjana

Wesley Bo on

Schoenmaker, however, broke new ground at the Gold Coast showpiece by shattering long-standing African records held by the likes of double Olympic champion Penny Heyns.

Displaying tremendous tenacity in her finals, and narrowly missing out on a bronze medal in the unfamiliar 50m sprint, Schoenmaker elevated herself to a new level by settling among the global elite after winning double gold in the 100m and 200m events.

In South Africa’s other top Olympic code, track and field, the dearth of elite women has not been quite as severe, but similar long-term concerns have been raised.

Since 2011, middle-distance star Caster Semenya and consistent javelin queen Sunette Viljoen had been the nation’s only female medallists at major global championships, including the Commonwealth Games, the World Championships and the Olympics.

In the Gold Coast, however, Wenda Nel joined the party by stepping on the podium in the 400m hurdles final.

And if in-form sprinter Carina Horn had not withdrawn from the team, she too may have contested for a medal, along with fellow absentee Dom Scott-Efurd, who was given no real chance to qualify after she was snubbed from the World Championships team last year.

Elsewhere, in rowing, world champion Kirsten McCann is making waves, while the likes of weightlifter Mona Pretorius and the women’s lawn bowls contingent were among the medals at the Gold Coast Games.

These are hardly huge leaps, and this by no means suggests South African women have drawn level with elite men, but the progress is clear across the board and whatever efforts are being made behind the scenes to promote women’s sport is evidently working.

They have many more strides to make, but if the upward curve continues, SA’s top women will ultimately be able to punch alongside the men.

And more elite women equals more major championship medals, which can only be a good thing.