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South African

Published Aug 21, 2016

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SOUTH AFRICANS will be enormously proud of Team South Africa’s medals haul at the Rio Olympics, which ended yesterday.

Many were privileged to view live on television stellar performances by athletes such as Wayde van Niekerk, who smashed a 17-year-old 400m world record held by American great Michael Johnson, and Caster Semenya, who withstood a disgraceful hate campaign against her to win gold in the 800m.

Unforgettable too were the performances of long-jumper Luvo Manyonga, who came within a centimetre of winning gold; Sunette Viljoen, who led in the javelin until the last round; Chad le Clos, who battled bravely against Olympic legend Michael Phelps; and Henri Schoeman; who surprised everyone by winning bronze in the triathlon.

Many who did not win medals nevertheless set either new South African records or a personal best in their events. We congratulate the medal winners and all who competed so strongly.

Of course, there will be post-mortems when the team returns – as well there should be.

We would like to ask just one question of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), the government, big business and the Lotteries Board: Why is so little spent on developing talented young South African athletes into Olympics medal winners?

The lion’s share of sports sponsorships is pumped into the so-called big three sports – rugby, football and cricket. The thinking behind this is that these codes draw the biggest crowds and widest TV audiences.

We beg to differ.

South African sports lovers, like sports lovers all over the world, love winners. And are there any bigger winners right now than Van Niekerk and Semenya, or even Manyonga?

Less than a decade ago, the UK invested more in its Olympics rowing team than South Africa invested in its entire Olympics squad. Looking at it another way, Australia’s investment in its Olympics team is comfortably more than the equivalent of R1.5 billion. South Africa’s, by contrast, is probably around R150 million.

We will have to up our spend considerably if we wish to mount a serious challenge at the Olympics.

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