Female athletes to the fore in South Africa’s recent sporting resurgence

PATIENCE. One of the key ingredients to sporting success and something that can make or break a career.

Many promising careers have ended prematurely which naturally leads to the question of what if.

Last weekend Carina Horn made a magical breakthrough which would not have been possible had she not possessed dogged determination to succeed.

Horn became the first South African women to duck under 11 seconds in the 100-metre sprint and one can only hope it will create a snowball effect.

Her success did not happen overnight and she had to graft pretty damn hard to get to this point almost a year from reach- probably true for most sports people – that perform on the international stage are the ones that showed patience.

It also requires a fair bit of bravery to keep plugging at it when the rewards seem minute and the sacrifices are large.

One only needs to look at the South African women who won medals at the Commonwealth Games as a case in point.

One-lap hurdler Wenda Nel, who is three months away from turning 30, made her breakthrough last month, winning bronze at the Games.

She sacrificed her job to focus purely on her track career and is now reaping the benefits of what would have been a tough decision.

Nel and Horn may not possess heaps of talents but they are two of the most hard-working athletes you will find.

Weightlifter Mona Pretorius had to wait until her fourth appearance at the Games to finally step onto the podium. She has been at it for close to two-thirds of her life and had to leave her family and friends behind to be close to her coach in the United States in pursuit of her dreams.

Sunette Viljoen is perhaps the epitome of determination winning her fourth medal in as many appearances at the Games.

While Semenya burst onto the scene as a teenager she is only reaching her full potential nine years after winning the world 800m gold in Berlin 2009.

These women should be commended for plugging at it when support for female athletes is generally lacking in South Africa. They don’t receive the recognition they deserve and it is about time that we find ways to give them moral and financial support.

The federations need do some serious introspection about how to bring about gender parity in sport.

Women were massively unrepresented at the Commonwealth Games.

The appointment of Tokozile Xasa as South Africa’s first female Sports Minister is certainly a step in the right direction.

Xasa this week announced she had appointed a reference group that will be developing women in sports policy.

This will hopefully provide some sort of blueprint on how we can promote female participation in sport and lead to greater gender equity.