Paris medal haul enshrined in storybook of SA’s Olympic journey

Zaahier Adams

When Team SA left South African shores for the Paris Olympics, there were not many genuine medal contenders outside of swimming’s golden girl Tatjana Smith.

Akani Simbine possibly in the 100m sprints and hopefully Alan Hatherly in the men’s cross country mountain biking. But apart from those select few, South Africa’s medal hopes were slim pickings.

Having now delivered a 100% improvement on Tokyo three years ago, with Team SA bagging half a dozen medals in the French capital, rich applause is deserved. Yes, Smith played her part with a gold and silver again in breaststroke.

In the process, she became South Africa’s most decorated Olympian ever with four medals overall – equal to fellow swimmer Chad le Clos but of greater value because she now owns two gold and two silver medals compared to Le Clos’ one gold and three silver.

It is an achievement that deserves celebrating and will enshrine Paris in the storybook of South Africa’s Olympic journey.

But Hatherly also delivered. Having placed 26th in his first Olympic appearance in Rio de Janeiro eight years ago before improving to eighth in Tokyo, the 28-year-old struck bronze in Paris with a hugely impressive ride.

South Africa’s first medal in Paris, however, came from the most unlikely of sources.

The Blitzboks had endured a horrid season and only qualified for Paris after winning a repechage tournament in Monaco.

After experiencing two losses on the opening day to Ireland and the All Blacks, it seemed that Phillip Snyman’s team were better off back home preparing for next season’s World Rugby Sevens Series. But the Blitzboks bounced back spectacularly on the second day as they trounced Japan 49-5 in their final group game – they needed to win by 21 points or more to progress – and then shocked New Zealand 14-5 in the quarter-finals.

Although they lost the semi to eventual gold medallists France, they bounced back to claim the bronze medal with a final-minute victory over Australia.

It was a truly inspiring performance, particularly after their disappointment in Tokyo three years ago.

And that brings us to track and field.

Rio de Janeiro was the highlight for Team SA with Wayde van Niekerk and Caster Semenya bringing home the gold and Luvo Manyonga and Sunette Viljoen-Louw silver medals, but those glory days were well and truly dashed in Tokyo with Team SA not winning a single athletics medal.

The closest they came was Simbine’s fourth place in the 100m final.

Unfortunately for Simbine and Team SA, despite delivering a national record this time, he finished in the exact same fourth place.

But Simbine would eventually get his much-desired Olympic medal. Anchoring the 4x100m men’s relay team, Simbine produced two exceptional finishes down the home straight in both the semi-final and final to secure the silver medal behind the Canadians.

Simbine, along with Shawn Maswangani and youngsters Bradley Nkoana and Bayanda Walaza clocked a new national record of 37.57. And then just like Rio eight years ago, Jo-Anne van Dyk followed in the footsteps of Viljoen-Louw by winning silver in the women’s javelin to cap a memorable Paris Olympics for Team SA.

But it was not just the medallists that had a significant impact on the purple track of Paris. The 4x400m relay team set a new national record of 2:58.12 as they finished fifth in their final.

Adrian Wildschutt also ran a spectacular 10 000m race as he stormed home in a new national record 26:50.64, nearly 10 seconds faster than the Olympic record, but unfortunately still came home in 10th in one of the all-time great races.

Young Prudence Sekgodiso also showed off her potential in finishing eighth in the women’s 800m, while Brian Raat finished in 11th place in the men’s high jump.

Only two South Africans participated in finals in Tokyo.

There were also personal bests for 400m women’s hurdlers Zeney Geldenhuys and Rogail Joseph, and Miranda Coetzee in the 400m flat.

In the pool, there were also promising performances from Pieter Coetze in the 100m and 200m backstroke finals with the 20-year-old primed for a medal attack in Los Angeles.

Julia Vincent also finished 11th in the women’s 3m springboard diving event.

Team SA showed their potential in Paris. Hopefully, the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) provides the necessary support over the next four years in order for an even greater medal haul in LA.