Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Chad Le Clos and Wayde van Niekerk will spearhead a multi-pronged attack for SA firsts at the Tokyo Olympics, which kick off for real on Saturday.
Just getting to the Japanese capital is unique for a nation that was barred for its racist apartheid policies the last time the Games were staged there, in 1964. The SA Olympic committee even attempted some window dressing by naming a handful of black boxers and athletes to the provisional team, but nobody bought it.
So heading into Tokyo for the first time, Team SA is seeking a slew of firsts.
Moolman-Pasio, who competes in the women's road race and individual time trial, is bidding to become the first SA woman to win an Olympic cycling medal.
The sport has delivered eight medals for SA previously, all by men, with the last coming at Melbourne 1956.
Le Clos, SA's most decorated Olympian with four medals from London 2012 and Rio 2016, will attempt to become the first South African to win medals at three Games.
Van Niekerk is the only member of the 178-strong squad with a chance of retaining an Olympic title, and if he does keep the 400m crown he won at Rio 2016, he would be the first South African to ascend the podium two Games in a row.
Caster Semenya is the 800m champion from Rio and London 2012, but her first gold started out as a silver, being upgraded only after the Russian victor had been disqualified for doping a few years later. She never climbed the podium as champion in 2012.
Tatjana Schoenmaker, who has been kept away from media interviews by the team around her, is looking to win SA's first Olympic women's swimming medal since Penny Heyns at Sydney 2000.
Schoenmaker is the only South African ranked top in the world going into Tokyo, seeded first in the 200m breaststroke.
John Smith and Lawrence Brittain, teammates in the rated men's four boat, are both looking to become the first rowers to win second Olympic medals.
Smith was part of the lightweight men's four that took gold at London 2012, and Brittain claimed silver in the men's pair in Rio. Smith is also looking to become the first lightweight Olympic medallist to claim Games silverware in the heavyweight class.
Officially they are ranked second in the fours but the World Cup regatta in which they finished second in May was missing two top teams, the Australians and Americans.
To date SA rowers have won three Olympic medals, the only code outside athletics and swimming to have done so since readmission in 1992.
The Blitzboks, bronze medallists at rugby sevens' debut in Rio, are looking to become the fourth multi-medal code.
Henri Schoeman and Richard Murray, third and fourth in Rio, will attempt to do the same for triathlon.
Golf is still looking for its first medal, as are newcomer codes like surfing, skateboarding and climbing.
But of all the firsts that Team SA can achieve, the most significant would be a medal in the blue riband 100m.
Team SA has a full contingent of three sprinters in that event, but Akani Simbine, ranked No 2 in the world, is the one most likely to win SA's first medal in the short sprint in 113 years.
Gold, silver or bronze would be a remarkable achievement.
There are other firsts on the cards for Team SA which don't revolve around medals, like water polo making their first foray in the post-isolation era. The men competed at Rome 1960, finishing ninth out of 16 teams, but this is the first time for the women.
The men's under-23 football team will be looking to win their first Olympic match since the class of 2000 downed Brazil. That remains the only football game SA has ever won at a Games, by men or women.
Team SA has established two Olympic traditions.
One is winning at least one medal at every Games the country has participated in officially, which excludes the 1904 spectacle in St Louis where a few South Africans were recruited from the World Fair to bolster the numbers for the marathon.
SA has won one medal on two occasions and 10 medals three times (two medals twice, three medals three times, four twice, five three times, six three times).
A haul of seven, eight, nine or even 11 upwards would be a first, but that's not going to happen; expect something between two and five from the Tokyo edition.
SA's other tradition is more painful - finishing fourth. SA has achieved at least one fourth spot at each of the 18 Games it's competed in.
Some of the country's greatest names have been condemned to this post, including medallists like Le Clos, John Smith the rower (both 2016), Ryk Neethling (2004), Sunette Viljoen (2012), Hezekiel Sepeng (2000) and even Penny Heyns, as part of the women's 4x100m medley in 1996.
SA had four fourth places in Rio.
The Olympics are as glorious as they can be brutal. Let the Games begin.
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