Olympic boss Sam Ramsamy does not want to predict how many medals South Africa will bring back from Athens next year.
For 2000, he made such a prediction which was not realised, and was ”assassinated” for that, the National Olympic Committee of South Africa (Nocsa) president told the National Press Club in Pretoria.
”Because of my personal history in the anti-apartheid struggle … there is still a certain sector of the media … the mainstream media … [which has] a residual prejudice against me.
”For that reason I won’t answer your question,” he told a reporter who asked him for a prediction.
Earlier he promised: ”Be assured, we will come back with medals … Our target is to return with as many medals as possible.”
According to Ramsamy, it was unrealistic to expect achievements at the Olympic Games similar to those of the Commonwealth Games last year and the All Africa and Afro-Asian games this year.
”No multi-sport games is as taxing as the Olympic Games.”
The Paralympic Games was also very different, he said.
”One cannot and should not compare the results achieved at these two games as some misinformed journalists have tried to do in the past.”
Ramsamy said Australia spent R3,2-billion in preparing its team for the Sydney Olympics, more than 100 times the amount South Africa did.
Nocsa spent most of its resources on potential medallists, he said.
For instance, world high jump champions Hestrie Cloete and Jacques Freitag received assistance to the amount of R254 050 and R193 050 respectively.
Almost R263 700 was spent on cyclist JP van Zyl, while Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, who won bronze in the 800m at the World Championships, got a R139 750 grant.
Gerhard Zandberg received R41 200 for his preparations for the World Swimming Championships, in which he won bronze. Two rowing teams were given R163 770 each.
”There were also amounts given to other athletes who did not produce what we anticipated,” Ramsamy said.
With regard to the selection of the Olympic team, he said South Africa had to choose whether to spend its resources on a few athletes with an excellent chance to win medals, or to provide support more widely.
Ethiopia and Kenya had chosen the first option, and won more medals than South Africa in Sydney.
Nocsa would put its selection criteria for each sporting code — except those which the international bodies had not finalised — on its website within the next week or so, Ramsamy said.
Those sports in which South Africa succeeded internationally would be an automatic choice, he said.
”We will guarantee a place for any athlete or team which qualifies through quality.”
Demographic representation would play an important role in those sports qualifying through the International Olympic Committee’s measures to ensure participation on a continental basis.
”To a large extent we have been very reasonable. We’ll continue to be reasonable. Where there has been doubt, the benefit of the doubt has always gone to the team or individual.”
Asked whether administrators and coaches were not to blame for a decline in South Africa’s sports results in many areas, he said: ”Maybe we need to look at our own approach, how we expect too much from some athletes.”
Besides money, Australia had the help of the best coaches from all over the world for the Sydney Olympics, Ramsamy said.
”We would all like South African born and bred people to take charge of our teams, and then our euphoria sometimes prejudices our selection.
”We need to think about it: do we have the experts?” — Sapa