Cape Town’s Olympic aspirations, dashed when the 2004 Games went to Athens, are coming home to roost. This weekend the city hosts the 2001 World Pigeon Olympiad.
But unlike the two most recent pigeon games in England and Spain, red tape meant the famous five-ring symbol had to be dropped from the first-ever international feathered Olympiad in Africa. About 900 winged competitors from around the globe and an estimated 5 000 human racers, breeders and fanciers from 30 countries have congregated in the Mother City.
Among the pigeon glitterati are a Saudi prince, a Japanese businessman and a United States-based movie producer. China and Taiwan are also represented. South Africa’s 12 000 pigeon racers are cooing with excitement. “It’s a once in a lifetime thing in South Africa. It’s the first time ever it happens in Africa,” says Pedron Roodt, who has travelled all the way from Uitenhage to race his pigeons.
“When you send birds … you give your best. You want to win the race,” he adds, much to the amusement of his brother, who says he prefers shooting pigeons. Apart from racing fever, the Olympiad also offers spectacular sights. Hundreds of show pigeons — bred for beauty and preened much like canines in a dog show — will be on display at the Olympiad exhibition in the Good Hope Centre.
But it is the athlete birds that set a pigeon fancier’s heart aflutter. And the stakes are high. The entry fee of $100 a bird is nothing to laugh at with the current rand-dollar exchange rate. Yet hopes of prestige and a share of the R250 000 prize money allocated for the best 40 birds make this an easy sacrifice. These thoroughbred pigeons are not your common urban concrete jungle variety.
Experts say racing pigeons must have a big heart and the brains to find their way home to their loft. Some say you can tell a good bird by its eyes; others say it is strictly from its performance. The winner of the previous Olympiad in Barcelona two years ago was sold for more than R1-million. Offspring of the prized bird will generate hundreds of thousands of rands for several years. “It’s a good investment.
That’s why people are paying huge prices,” says Boet Troskie, chair of the Olympiad organising committee. But he hastens to add that pigeons hold a special place in any fancier’s heart. “It’s the love for the pigeon. Pigeon racing is a family sport. And that’s one way to keep kids off the streets.” Around 900 “athletes of the sky” will test their mettle in Saturday’s Grand Prix Race over 510km.
The birds will be “liberated” — pigeon racing lingo for released — at Victoria West in the Karoo just after dawn. They must find their way back to Cape Town against the odds of adverse weather conditions, such as heat or wind, and the ever-present danger of hawks and falcons. At an average speed of 75km/h the first pigeons are expected back at their base on the Zevenwacht wine estate in Kuilsriver, northern Cape Town, shortly after lunch.
Race preparations are complex. Like any Comrades marathon runner, the thoroughbred flyers eat a high carbohydrate diet shortly before the race, replacing the protein-rich feed aimed at building muscle strength.
Days before the event the feathered competitors are bathed in diluted dishwashing liquid to put their best wing forward. The drop-out rate is high — and final, as in the bird Olympics disqualification usually means death. Telephone and electricity lines have claimed their share of victims on recent training flights.
Predatory birds have also ended many a pigeon breeder’s hopes when they swooped on the Olympiad contenders. Earlier this week several racing pigeon owners from as far as Gauteng and the Free State arrived at the estate to check up on their precious winged competitors. Many last saw their pigeons as 30-day-old babies.
All competing birds were sent to Cape Town in order to develop their homing instincts ahead of the Olympiad. A bird that has not been trained to recognise the Zevenwacht loft as home will fly back to where it grew up. Flags of different countries flutter over the specially built accommodation. Cross-ventilation panels provide plenty of fresh air.
Four chickens are kept inside to monitor any possible outbreak of disease — pigeons and chickens are prone to the same illnesses. Two vets keep a watchful eye over the competitors, which were quarantined for a month after arrival in August.
Even at the Olympic loft compound hawks and falcons are a worry. “I’ve spotted four different types,” says loft manager Piet Kleue. “In the beginning they terrorised us. That’s a real problem. It makes them [pigeons] nervous. The hawks took some. Some were lost to wires. Initially we had 1 200 pigeons. Now there are between 800 and 900.”
Western Cape Premier Gerald Morkel helped secure the Olympiad for the Mother City rather than rival bidder Portugal in order to showcase the province. “I’m very excited. For Cape Town it means a huge boost for the tourism industry. It means putting Cape Town on the map.”
But Saturday’s race is also personal. A pigeon fancier for 50 years, Morkel is keeping fingers crossed for the six pigeons racing in his name.