/ 24 August 2012

Paralympics: The ability to win gold

Hilton Langenhoven winning the 200m T12 at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.
Hilton Langenhoven winning the 200m T12 at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Grace Hughes is the chief physiotherapist of South Africa's Paralympics team and, on the eve of the team's departure, she was telling the media how well prepared, fit and strong the squad are.

"I can tell you that we've had them all in my office doing special neck-strengthening exercises, " she said, "because I'm honestly worried about how they're going to cope with all those medals around their necks."

It was a moment of humour that is typical of the Paralympics squad. The people who have the most to be unhappy about are some of the most joyous, inspiring people around, and "the pressure of expectation" seems to be a totally foreign concept for those for whom just playing sport is a major achievement.

But Hughes is right, South Africa are in line for plenty of medals at the Paralympics, which start in London on August 29.

South Africa's 66 competitors won 30 medals in Beijing in 2008, 21 of them gold, to finish sixth in the final standings, and will be looking to improve on that in London.

Maintain or improve
"I think 40 medals is possible, but our main aim is to maintain or improve on our sixth place overall in Beijing," said Tubby Reddy, chief executive of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.

Some of the greatest Paralympians of all time – most notably Oscar Pistorius and Natalie du Toit – are in Team South Africa and there will be a steward's inquiry if they do not come home with at least a few gold medals.

Seventeen-year-old Marike Naude is a rising star in the world of swimming and is competing in six events. There are high hopes for her, particularly as she could be reclassified in London to enter an easier disability group.

Charles Bouwer is going to his third Paralympics and will swim in six events. His aim is to repeat his performance in the 2010 World Championships, when he won silver in the 400m freestyle.

"I started in Athens when I was a 14-year-old and I thought I would stop in Beijing, so it's unbelievable to be going to a third Paralympics," he said.

Not one to back down
The visually impaired 22-year-old went to Pescara in Italy to train with the able-bodied Olympic swimmers and is clearly not one to back down from competition.

"Swimming six events in the S13 class, there's going to be a lot of competition. But why go to an event and just win everything? It's great to have the challenge," Bouwer said.

Other swimmers to keep an eye on are the versatile Hendrik Herbst, 100m breaststroke veteran Tadhg Slattery, competing in an astonishing sixth Paralympics, Beijing world record-setter Kevin Paul and Shireen Sapiro, who won gold in the 100m backstroke in Beijing.

Pistorius, given that he is one of the top 16 400m runners in the world, should overwhelm the opposition in the one-lap race, but he will have strong competition in the 100m, 200m and 800m races.

Other hot athletics medal contenders are Dyan Buis, Hilton Langen­hoven, who burst on to the scene so spectacularly in 2008 with three gold medals, sprinters Fanie van der Merwe, Arnu Fourie and Teboho Mokgalagadi, Ilse Hayes (100m and long jump) and experienced javelin thrower Zanele Situ.

"The bulk of our medals tend to come from athletics and swimming, and everybody who has been selected in the team has medal potential. It's a very difficult team to get into," chef de mission Pieter Badenhorst said.

"But in terms of new stars after Beijing, we have high hopes for Buis, who is the world record-holder in the long jump, and Mokgalagadi.

Congested
"It's notoriously difficult to predict how many medals we'll get and the medals table is so congested that one gold can make the difference between finishing fifth and 13th. Russia and Brazil have invested quite a lot in their Paralympians and it will be hard to predict how they'll do. But we have prepared as best we can," the 1992 gold medallist in the 400m sprint said.

Team South Africa are also hoping for some medals from the other "smaller" sports they are competing in – cycling, equestrian, rowing, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis.

Cycling, with world champion Ernst van Dyk leading the way, and equestrian sports, featuring double gold-winner Philippa Johnson, are genuine medal hopes and South Africa's wheelchair tennis player, Kgothatso Montjane, is in the top 10 of the world rankings.

South Africans are only just starting to embrace the Olympics fully after years of isolation, and it might yet take a while for the Paralympians to be fully appreciated.

But Sports Minister Fikile Mba­lula has the right idea. "Our Para­lympians have led from the front and have never disappointed us. I stand here ashamed that the country has never given you the rightful credit. So bring back that gold that was stolen from our motherland. I don't know if we're going to nationalise it, but we want it back," Mbalula told the Paralympics at a farewell banquet in Sandton.

Cameron van der Burgh said the Olympic athletes "should take notes" from their disabled compatriots for the many challenges they overcame just to have the opportunities the able-bodied sports stars take for granted.

The gold-winning swimmer said his most inspirational moment of the Olympics was seeing Pistorius get more applause than Usain Bolt; but Mbalula may have been just a little over-enthusiastic when he described the Blade Runner as "the greatest human on Earth".

That is what the Paralympics are about: sportsmen and women overcoming the stiffest of challenges just to compete on the biggest stage. The medals are a bonus, but something South Africans can certainly expect.