Embarrassment hung over OR Tambo International like a dark cloud on August 26 2008. Not long after a dejected Team South Africa landed that cloud exploded into an onslaught of interrogation about the country’s dismal performance at the Beijing Olympic Games. Not even their solitary silver medal could prevent the downpour of disappointment raining on the team that day.
A year later, on August 25 2009, the scenes at the country’s major airport could not have been more different. More than 5 000 people packed passageways as elated fans welcomed home their heroes. The downtrodden team from the year before had transformed into medal-bearing conquerors. The first leg of the journey to London 2012 was declared a success.
In the past month South Africa has won seven medals at three world championships. Three in Berlin, three at the swimming championships in Rome and one at the canoe sprint world championships in Canada.
”Our target of 12 medals in London is well within sight,” said Gideon Sam, president of the South African Sports Commission and Olympic Committee (Sascoc).
”We’re already more than halfway there and that’s not even taking into account other Olympic sports such as boxing, judo and taekwondo.”
Sam believes these codes will guarantee the other five medals in three years’ time. ”We’ve been ÂÂquietly working and have had many of our athletes training with experts overseas. The taekwondo team have been in Korea working under grandmaster Eun Woo Lee, the judo competitors have been given opportunities in Budapest and the weightlifters have been in Indonesia.”
Although Sam thinks developments in these sporting codes bode well for London, he insists that ”the good money should be on boxing”. South Africa has had 33 Olympic boxers in its history and is regarded as having some of the ”best amateur boxers in the world”, according to Sam.
Diversifying the medal hunt is part of Sascoc’s ”operation excellence”, a project launched in the aftermath of the Beijing debacle.
”We’re being good investors this time round. We banked on swimming and athletics to bring home medals at the Beijing Games and that backfired. This time we’re building on different areas and we’re re-evaluating our plans every six months,” said Sam.
The project has isolated 10 sports, including canoeing, rowing and cycling, in which South Africa is ranked among the world’s top 20 and will spend the next two years vigorously developing these sports. Sam singled out canoeing as an example of a sport that has benefited from a cash injection.
”After receiving funding from the National Lottery, it was unbelievable to see how the numbers involved in canoeing have grown. We have been able to produce athletes like Bridgette Hartley from this.”
Earlier this month Hartley became the first South African to win a medal for kayaking. Sascoc’s president also promised that combat sports will receive support from the South African National Defence Force as they prepare for the next Olympics.
That’s not to say athletics has been forgotten. A lot will be expected from the country’s track and field specialists. The first name on Sam’s lips for 2012 is 400m hurdler LJ van Zyl. Although the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist had a quiet world championship, finishing sixth in the semifinals and failing to qualify for the final, Sam believes Van Zyl will be ready for a podium position in London.
Another athlete who will carry the weight of expectation is 100m sprinter Simon Magakwe. He trained with Usain Bolt, but failed to light up the track in the same way his Jamaican mentor did.
But the main focus will be 800m, which has emerged as a speciality for South Africa. Following Mbulaeni Mulaudzi’s accomplishment in the men’s race and Caster Semenya’s obliteration of all competitors in the women’s event, the Sascoc boss said middle-distance running will receive greater attention.
”We will be moving our operations deeper into the Northern Cape and recruiting more middle-distance runners, especially women, as that is an area where a lot of untapped talent lies.”
Marcello Fiasconaro, a former 800m world record holder, believes no newcomers will match Mulaudzi and Semenya’s Berlin feat. He has tipped them to be the ”favourites for London”, especially since they are both ”so strong and there is no one else really challenging in that field”.
Fiasconaro believes South African athletes would benefit from ”training more as a team, such as the Kenyans or Ethiopians, rather than ÂÂindividually”.
He said the only difference between good runners and those athletes who break world records lies in the mind of the athletes. Those with ”courage on the day” will set new benchmarks.
This is encouraging news for team South Africa, whose recent trio of medallists gave brave performances. Long jumper and silver medallist Khotso Mokoena made an almost unnoticed return home but was content to bask in the shadow of his golden counterparts. Mulaudzi’s achievement was overshadowed by the Semenya controversy.
Semenya emerged as the most courageous of the lot, fighting off adoring fans, over-zealous politicians and a media frenzy with a smile.