#IOLYMPICS: Team SA scores a perfect 10
Our new superheroes’ incredible Olympic journey have let us dream again.
|||As the curtain falls on the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, it is time to reflect on what has been an incredible journey for Team South Africa. The 10 medals they’ll deliver to the country at OR Tambo International on Tuesday were all the final pieces of personal odysseys that make the material achievement that much richer.
The common thread that runs through each victory has been the humility that each and every one of South Africa’s medals has been accepted with.
They haven’t screamed and shouted, but have knelt and prayed, and looked for loved ones who know just how long the road has been.
Every single one of the country’s medallists has shared their tales with the world and all of them ought to serve as fresh inspiration, not just to Team SA for 2020, but to every South African.
These stories, deeply personal, embody the struggles of being a modern South African and show that hard work and dedication can overcome the unlikeliest of circumstances.
The poster boy for the South African team, Wayde van Niekerk, wasn’t made flag-bearer for nothing. He embodies the essence of a South African superstar; incredible performances followed by the most personable reactions.
Van Niekerk is being talked about as the next global headline act on the track, with the pending retirement of Usain Bolt from the Olympics. He has taken the possibility of such a responsibility in his remarkable stride, along with what will be an unprecedented commercial clamour for the privilege of being associated with a world record-holder. For him, the most important thing is family, and he counts being able to take them to Rio as one of his great joys. He is not alone in looking back at where he came from before he thinks of where he could go to from here.
Luvo Manyonga’s first thought was to buy his mother a house. It is the unspoken dream of so many kids who grow up in single-parent homes, but Manyonga’s greatest source of pride is that he will be able to give the ultimate thank-you to the woman that has endured so much with him, for him.
Former Olympian Ryk Neethling called for Manyonga’s drugs-to-riches tale to be made into a movie because to come back from that dark place and then find one’s place on the world’s biggest stage is incredible. Manyonga’s rehabilitation was only supposed to bear fruit down the line, but he seized the moment because he couldn’t wait any more.
Not waiting any more was also the theme for South Africa’s rowers. Lawrence Brittain battled through cancer, chemotherapy and the debilitating state that the disease leaves one in, and his journey merits a screenplay in itself. What he and Shaun Keeling proved, in pushing an "invincible" Kiwi boat all the way to the line, is that any challenge can be reeled in and beaten, even cancer.
mbrace our new heroes on their homecoming
Another rainbow warrior who had to overcome physical ailment was Henri Schoeman, the country’s first triathlon medallist. The chest infection that threatened to derail his dreams couldn’t hold him back, and it says everything about the camaraderie that this team shares that his immediate thought was for his teammate, Richard Murray, who finished fourth, but may well have stolen the show if it wasn’t for a compromised shoulder.
Sunette Viljoen also seized the moment in an emotional javelin final. Four Olympics and some very near-misses may have broken some spirits, but Viljoen’s desire has been as unflinching as the arrow that she threw into South African hearts on Thursday night.
She has stood up for the rights of athletes, stood up for her sexuality – even having her family turn against her – and glowed in the pride of representing her country on the international stage.
She took her medal up to The Redeemer, to give thanks to the spiritual father of Rio, the Catholic capital of the world. Like many of South Africa’s other medallists, and indeed athletes, Viljoen has found the trip to Rio deeply moving, and fans have fallen in love with the green and gold.
That the Rugby Sevens side were apologetic after getting only a bronze medal emphasised the ambition of a unit that coach Neil Powell drilled for months.
There were grown-men tears in their final huddle on the field, because they knew that four years will shed a few, older players, from the squad that wants redemption and gold in Tokyo.
That determination to bounce back was also evidenced in the manner that Chad le Clos picked himself up from the disappointment of one butterfly event, to share the podium with his hero, Michael Phelps.
Le Clos, with two silver medals added to his collection, may yet be one of the stars of 2020, and he will be a bigger and better man for his experiences in Rio.
Cameron van der Burgh also showed his indomitable spirit, because breaststroke is one of the toughest disciplines, and to follow up four years later shows incredible reserves of mental strength.
The road to Rio was not easy for Van der Burgh, and he was up against swimming’s latest breakout star, Adam Peaty.
That it took a world record to hold off the man who told the world “Ke Nako” in 2012 tells a story on its own.
The story that everyone wanted to see at the Rio Games was that of Caster Semenya. Her silence in front of the media has been a story in itself, as an intrusive press has tried to find something, anything to take away from a victory that has played purely by the rules put out in front of her.
Team SA has embraced Semenya throughout the Games, enveloping her in a giant team hug, protecting her proudly.
That is the South African way, and the South African story that has unravelled in Rio emphasises that, through our differences, this country is even stronger.
Embrace them when they step off that plane on Tuesday morning. Give them a deeply, proudly South African squeeze, because they have let a nation dream again, and done it with a smile on their faces.
– The Sunday Independent