The future of South African sport really is in good hands. Right at the very top there are people who care. They’re passionate and they are working tirelessly to ensure that the country’s sporting structures and systems are put in place to ultimately stand the test of time.
One can fully understand if you roll your eyes and say, “I’ve seen this movie before. The more things change the more they stay the same”. But, this time it can be different.
I was part of the SASCOC High Performance workshop that was held at the impressive North West University last week. In attendance for the Indaba, facilitated by SASCOC 2nd vice-president Debbie Alexander, included SASCOC president Barry Hendricks and Board member Kim Pople, who was representing the National Federations. Also present was the new SASCOC CEO, Nozipho Jafta.
There was a collection of some of the country’s greatest sporting minds and people of action. The presentations and dialogue was diverse and in-depth. There were no holy cows.
I don’t feel I need to run through all 20-or-so attendees, but suffice to say they came to make presentations in the fields of psychology, medical, sports science, coaching and on behalf of the Federations (there are over 70 of them), athletes and Universities. There was also input from the logistics and planning side of SASCOC.
Sheldon Rostron, the former coach of the women’s national hockey side and current director of sport at NWU was a most impressive facilitator and also representing the university was Bertus le Roux, the business and operations manager at NWU. A keynote speaker was Prof Pieter Kruger, who also attended the Tokyo Olympics as Team SA’s psychologist.
At the heart of the workshop was a roadmap that, if implemented and stuck to, will see South African sport hit the heights in the coming years. That doesn’t mean one must expect Team SA to suddenly go from three medals at Tokyo 2020 to a bucketful at Paris 2024’s Olympics.
Sport doesn’t work like that. You can’t start a process in 2022 and expect it to be the finished product by 2024. However, Los Angeles in 2028 is where I can confidently say that Team SA will have its best return at an Olympics since returning to the Games family in 1992. The number to beat is the 10 medals secured at Rio 2016, with Athens 2004 and London 2012 occupying second spot on six.
There is much to be enthusiastic about. The relatively new Athletes Commission has given a voice to the most important players in the entire equation – the athletes – and chairperson Khotso Mokoena, himself an Olympic medallist, is doing a fine job on a board where another Olympic medallist, Bridgitte Hartley, serves as deputy. And while we were at the workshop, news came that Hartley was voted in as the International Canoe Federation’s athletes’ commission chairperson.
Quite understandably, Joe Public, fed by the media, looks at the completion of the puzzle, without necessarily realising what pieces are required to complete the big picture. South African sport, with the exception of the “Big Three” of soccer, rugby and cricket, has for long struggled financially, which has led to thin resources. Most of the country’s Olympians actually have “day jobs”, competing against fully-funded professional athletes.
However, with investment and buy-in – Corporate SA, are you listening? – there’s enough intellectual property in South Africa to make us believe that anything is truly possible. For the first time in a long time the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t that of an oncoming train.