I’ve decided to save up for tickets to at least one swimming day and two athletics days at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. In 1992 I spent a few hours watching Olympic athletics in Barcelona; I was sitting three rows from the front at the end of the turn into the final straight when the local hero, Fermín Cacho, burst from the pack to take the lead and win the men’s 1500m final.
The crowd went borderline insane and the memory of it still makes the hair rise on the back of my neck. I was so close and it was so thrilling. I’ve watched more of the Olympics this year than I have in the intervening 32 years and it’s been great fun, but I want to be there one more time. I want to be truly moved like that again.
If the success of the Springboks has taught us anything, it is that sporting excellence and success can have an electrifying effect on an often demoralised public
The thing about athletics is that, much more than with any other sport or competition, humans can truly relate. We able-bodied types can all run and jump.
Watching another human take those abilities to such wild extremes is an almost intimate experience. You know you couldn’t if you tried. But you can imagine trying anyway. And the progress is so painful you can touch it. The American Charley Paddock set a world record in the 100m in 1921 of 10.4 seconds.
The Jamaican Usain Bolt, who holds the current 100m record, ran 9.69 in 2008 (he ran faster a few years later but with a tailwind). So it has taken us humans more than a century to run just 0.71 seconds faster than Charley Paddock. What’s not to love? Every big race trembles with the possibility that our species might advance just a fraction, and it is always worth waiting for.
The standout for me this year has been the unrelenting dominance of the Americans on track and field and in the pool. It isn’t exclusive, obviously, but you pick holes in their performance as a whole at your peril. They may come from a rich country, but the US athletics and swimming winners this year have been men and women of steel.
And, frankly, the hours I’ve had to spend waiting for a South African sprinter or middle distance runner to appear have for the most part been unrewarding. The 4x100m relay silver was immense though and clearly Akani Simbine is magnificent. In the pool Tatjana Smith is too. But she’ll now retire.
And I hope I get to see young Shaun Maswanganyi, as he moves to train in the US, take a 200m medal in 2028. He may even find 400m a better fit to his glorious lanky stride. If it’s in him, the Americans will find it.
We will have some great coaches of our own too, so why don’t we do better? The margins between third and fourth place may be small but the swimmers and runners taking bronze must have something we too often don’t have. I’m no expert, but the lack of money, top-class facilities and real competition, week in and week out, as well as the often demented politics at the top of every local sport, must play a key role.
I read the national swimming coach bemoaning the poor facilities we have. Pools are scarce and even the timing devices we use are not trusted by the international authorities. That’s just pathetic. Surely South Africa could do better?
Gayton McKenzie, the new sports minister, says we took 200 people to Paris and that he is going to take a team of 400 to Los Angeles.
He isn’t necessarily someone you could expect to hold to his word but he’s an enthusiast, and if he loses his xenophobia he might even be effective.
We need two or three world-class pools and one or two more world-class tracks with absolutely the finest equipment on earth.
We need tomorrow’s medallists from the US, Britain, China and Russia to come here and train in our summers so we can compete against them for days at a time.
The Paris Olympics should be the last time New Zealand or Ireland, for crying out loud, win more medals than we do. We are 63-million people.
If the success of the Springboks has taught us anything it is that sporting excellence can have an electrifying effect on an often demoralised public. Excellence is not a South African staple but, in small spaces, it could be.
With immaculate planning and leadership, surely we can find a way.
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