A lean-looking South African team carry a huge burden as they depart on Tuesday for Athens to embark on their fourth Olympic campaign since re-entry into world sport just more than a decade ago.
They leave behind a nation hungry for medals to eclipse the giddy heights of Atlanta in 1996 when the country celebrated three gold medals, a silver and a bronze. In reality, the team of 106 would do exceptionally well to beat the haul of two silver and three bronze medals that the South African team brought back from Sydney in 2000.
Political issues have always snapped at the heels of South Africa’s Olympians since re-entry to the Games in Barcelona in 1992, when 10 000m runner Elana Meyer and tennis players Wayne Ferreira and Pietie Norval won two silver medals for their country.
Twelve years down the line, the 106-member team have been labelled as too white and not truly representative of their country’s demographics by outgoing National Olympic Committee of South Africa president Sam Ramsamy, but fallout from his statement has had little affect on the team’s Olympic resolve.
”We know Sam’s got nothing against us as white athletes,” said an Olympian at the Olympic Day run in the grounds of the University of Pretoria on Sunday, where busloads of kids were brought in from surrounding informal settlements.
”He’s just stressing because development hasn’t been fast enough in certain sports codes.”
Whether soccer is a reflection of lack of quality development remains debatable, but had the under-23s been of a high enough standard to qualify for the Olympics, the team’s composition would have gained better ”politically correct” status for Athens.
As matters stand, track and field events spearhead South Africa’s medal hopes with world high-jump champions Hestrie Cloete and Jacques Freitag leading the way for gold. Also, 800m runners Hezekiel Sepeng (Atlanta silver medallist) and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (Commonwealth Games and world indoor champion) and marathon athletes Ian Syster, Hendrick Ramaala and Gert Thys each have the ability to snatch anything from gold to bronze.
It is just a matter of being in the right place at the right time on the day.
Cloete has won two gold medals at world championships in Edmonton in 2001 and Paris in 2003. If she continues to improve on her current form — she won her 16th high-jump event in 18 outings at Crystal Palace in London last Friday with her best height of the year at 2,03m — then she is good for gold at Athens, especially considering she beat her strongest competition, Viktoriya Styopina, by 6cm.
It was Cloete’s fourth clearance over 2m this year and only Russia’s Yelena Slesarenko has jumped higher with 2,04m. Cloete will join the Olympic team in Athens after competing at the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich on Friday night.
The 2,04m-tall Freitag has recovered from an ankle injury that almost forced him out of the Olympics in May. He has since jumped 2,34m in competition in Europe, is clearing 2,29m in training, and wants to be good for a South African record of 2,37m, which he reckons will be the height for gold in Athens.
His strongest opposition is Sweden’s Stefan Holme, whose 2,36m is the highest on the European circuit this year.
Heavyweight rowers Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente are good for a medal in the coxless pairs after having won medals in major events and world championships since the Sydney Olympics and gold is a strong possibility if everything comes right for them on the day.
As thin a line as the marathon athletes must run to keep a medal in sight over the 42,2km on the original course that Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens, so delicate is the balance for swimmer Roland Schoeman who is ranked world second in the 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle.
Unlike in Atlanta where the marathon runners trained together in a high-altitude camp in Alburquerque for Josia Thugwane to emerge a hero with gold — to add to the swimming golds of Penny Heyns in Atlanta — South Africa’s long-distance trio are doing their own thing up until the last minute.
Syster, who ran two hours, six minutes and seven seconds for fifth in the 2002 London Marathon, has been training at high altitude with some of Africa’s best on the highlands of Kenya’s Mount Uhuru. The Capetonian will link up with his coach and fellow marathon runner Thys in Johannesburg to fly to Athens on August 25, three days before the marathon when the Games end.
Ramaala has decided to work on his speed at low altitude in France and will fly directly to Athens on August 25.
Any one of the marathon athletes could stake a medal place, but so much depends on how they pace themselves for a strong finish.
Schoeman and Ryk Neethling (100m and 200m freestyle) are the mainstays in the all-male South African swimming team of eight and if there is any hope of gold it should be Schoeman in the 50m, which is an explosive dash that depends more on the energy that goes into the start than speed at the finish.
Then there are a number of seasoned campaigners who could pull in the medals. Frantz Kruger’s laid-back attitude in competition could see him unleash a ”big one” in the discus as he did for bronze in Sydney. There are Janus Robberts and Burger Lambrechts in the shot put, Okkert Brits in the pole vault and Llewellyn Herbert, who could improve on his Sydney bronze as he is pushed by youngsters Okkert Cilliers and Alwyn Myburgh in the 400m hurdles.
Outside chances are Alan van Coller in the 500m and 1 000m kayak sprint; the men’s 4x400m relay; Martin Senore in prone rifle shooting; and the women’s hockey team led by seasoned captain Susan Webber — and who knows what any one of cyclists Ryan Cox, Robert Hunter, Tiaan Kannemeyer or Anriette Schoeman could do in the road cycling.
As one young Pretorian said while receiving an autograph from a South African Olympian after the Olympic Day run: ”Who cares if you are black or white? Just bring back gold, silver or bronze.” — Sapa