Wayne Ferreira and Pietie Norval (right) won a silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Photo: DENZIL MAREGELE
IN A new series leading up to the Paris Olympics, Independent Newspapers will catch up with former South African Olympians to regale us with their unique experiences.
Today, we feature tennis player Pietie Norval...
Pietie Norval: Doubles tennis. Silver medallist, Barcelona 1992
“It was a very uncertain time for the country, but at least Wayne (Ferreira) and I had been exposed to plenty of international action in the lead-up to the Games because we had been playing on the ATP tour already,” Norval said yesterday.
“We were quite young, but were really good as a doubles pair. One of the reasons we did well was that we hadn’t experienced an Olympics before and just saw it like another tournament.
“We had played all the big Grand Slams by then, and had actually done well by reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals the year before, so we knew we were among the leading contenders and seeded No 4.
“The Olympics was also to be played on Barcelona’s clay and that also suited our game, with some of the other contenders falling by the wayside during the early rounds.”
What made your combination with Ferreira such a formidable pairing?
“During that time, and a couple of years leading up to the Olympics, we had been travelling together day in and day out. You obviously become very close and forge a really good friendship.
“We used to spend holidays together. I had actually started on the tour a couple of years before Wayne, and then he joined and we travelled in a group together.
“So, by the time the Olympics came about, we had been together for almost three years. That certainly helps the partnership if you are good mates off the court.”
Tell us about that five-set epic semi-final against the two Gorans from Croatia…
“This was an extremely tough match. It could have gone either way. It was a historic match and really special because they were in a similar situation as South Africa, having just come out of independence with the old Yugoslavia having split into Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
“It was huge for them, for both Goran Ivanisevic and Goran Prpic. It was also massive because Ivanisevic had been runner-up in the Wimbledon singles just a few weeks before. He was one of the world’s best players, full stop!
“But Wayne and I knew we were as good as them – or even better – because we had played them in the recent past and beaten them. It ended up being a great match.
“I ended up serving for the match in the fifth set, which was quite nerve-racking. Fortunately, I got through that, and that was really special.”
And then the gold-medal match against German legends Boris Becker and Michael Stich …
“We went into the final expecting to win. They were incredibly good tennis players, but we were playing well. But what happened in that match … you can’t win a five-setter if you lose two tiebreaks (the final score was 7-6 (7/5) 4-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-3) and we lost both tiebreaks 7-5. So, instead of winning in three sets, or even going into a fourth or fifth set, you went 2-1 down, and that was a huge momentum swing.
“We were very unlucky, particularly in the first set, when Becker hit a net cord over my racquet. Those types of matches could go any way, and it didn’t go our way.
“We were really too young to actually realise the magnitude of the occasion. We were just out there competing and doing our best.
“It was only much later that we actually realised the historical importance of winning South Africa’s first Olympic medal since 1960.
“It didn’t sink in at the time, and it was probably a good thing because that would have increased the pressure on us during the tournament, and we never really played with any pressure on our shoulders.”
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