Cheryl Roberts
When he won the world athletics 400m championship in Beijing on Wednesday, Wayde van Niekerk gave his mother Odessa the most humane respect and praise for her sacrifices as an oppressed but very talented athlete in apartheid South Africa.
An amazing life story lies within the world championship-winning feat of South Africa’s Van Niekerk at the 2015 world athletic championships being staged in Beijing, especially when one knows that Wayde’s mother is Odessa Swarts, herself a champion athlete.
South Africa’s newest world champion, Van Niekerk is the son of a woman born oppressed during the horrendous apartheid times. Odessa was a talented athlete from primary school days, and blossomed into a schoolgirl champion and national senior athlete with awesome prowess in the sprints.
She chose to participate in non-racial, anti-apartheid sport under the non-racial sports organisation, South African Council on Sport (Sacos). Back in the day, if you were a member of Sacos, you chose to play sport for freedom from oppression and apartheid. The international sports boycott of SA was strictly adhered to and respected. Although Odessa longed to know her international capabilities, she stood diligently and unselfishly with anti-apartheid sport.
Today, Odessa sees her son Wayde – born when oppressed South Africans like his mother couldn’t vote in her country – become a world athletics champion in a democratic South Africa.
At the top of her athletics prowess, Odessa Swarts competed in interprovincial athletics events and the annual national championships on grass, gravel and uneven tracks; athletics tracks in Cape Town’s disadvantaged communities such as the Green Point track, Athlone and Vygieskraal stadiums, Dal Josafat stadium in Paarl and Curries Fountain in Durban.
It was difficult to play sport in disadvantaged and under-resourced communities during apartheid. You had to make do with scarce resources and sports facilities. Paramount to our participation in non-racial, anti-apartheid sport was our principles of not supporting apartheid and not helping to make the system work. We chipped and chiselled away at as much of apartheid as we could.
Many talented sportspeople emerged in several sports; sportspeople who could have gone on to represent South Africa internationally, and achieve world class standards. But playing anti-apartheid sport meant that we sacrificed our sports talent for freedom from oppression. Parents yearned for a free South Africa where children could compete and participate in sport on a level terrain, where communities were not discriminated against in provision of resources.
The athlete that was Odessa Swarts recorded fast times and phenomenal performances on the athletics tracks used by the oppressed sports people. White South Africa tried to play international sport by getting around and out of the sports moratorium; oppressed athletes continued to play sport for freedom.
This narrative about the oppressed mother that is Odessa, and the free athletics son that is Wayde is not only humanly touching; it is retribution for the years of sacrifice which his mother adhered to so that a democratic South Africa could be born, and children could be free to participate in sport and know they could also dream realistically of representing their country.
There is something special when a black sportsperson achieves internationally. Because of the burden of race, especially if you are not white, many more hurdles must be overcome. It’s why we are so much more ecstatic and filled with pride when black athletes excel in sport.
This athletics feat of an oppressed athlete’s son achieving a world title is something you think can only be scripted in Hollywood and performed on the movie screen. We must never forget what life stories our apartheid past and democratic society throws up. They are human to the core, phenomenal in spirit and fantastic in achievement.
But, when we see the children of the oppressed who gave their lives for freedom achieving, we know that the sacrifice and fight was not a lost cause. Wayde’s sports success, as a person not born into wealth and privilege, demonstrates the talent that exists and should be nurtured, looked after and supported.
It’s a fabulous way for a son to thank his mother for sacrificing her sports talent for him to be given a country to represent with recognition, pride, passion and enthusiasm.
But we must also remember that talent and prowess such as Wayde’s is plentiful in disadvantaged schools and communities, and we must not allow the working-class children to be deprived in sport.
l Roberts is a sport commentator and analyst