These three South African athletes have great back stories:
1. Wayde van Niekerk. He is being trained by an old white-haired granny. That is just supercool, though I wonder what more he might he capable of if he was trained by a top-qualified coach.
Van Niekerk comes from a gangster-infested area, and though that doesn't make him unique, he nevertheless would have faced many temptations to join a gang.
His mother was an athlete of some talent, apparently. She said she couldn't fulfil her talent due to apartheid. She refused to take part in mainstream codes, but affiliated with the anti-apartheid South African Council of Sports.
2. Caster Semanya. The shit that poor woman has had to put up with! Imagine being told that you're not really a woman (if you are one), even having your genitals questioned. In that cloud of sexist and, I'd aver, racist poison, Caster has kept her dignity.
If she wins gold, I hope it will obliterate the tears she surely must have shed about the brutality with which she has been treated.
3. Luvo Manyonga, who won silver in the long-jump... Four years ago he was leaving behind a promising career in athletics to become a tik (meth) addict, falling prey to a drug that is destroying South Africa's youth. He got banned in 2012 for 18 months.
Just as he started to get things straight again, his coach and mentor died in a car crash in 2014. On the way to the memorial Mayonga bumped into some of his tik friends. He missed the memorial and took up the tik pipe again.
Incredibly, he resumed full training only a year ago, and returned to competition only this year.
1. Wayde van Niekerk. He is being trained by an old white-haired granny. That is just supercool, though I wonder what more he might he capable of if he was trained by a top-qualified coach.
Van Niekerk comes from a gangster-infested area, and though that doesn't make him unique, he nevertheless would have faced many temptations to join a gang.
His mother was an athlete of some talent, apparently. She said she couldn't fulfil her talent due to apartheid. She refused to take part in mainstream codes, but affiliated with the anti-apartheid South African Council of Sports.
2. Caster Semanya. The shit that poor woman has had to put up with! Imagine being told that you're not really a woman (if you are one), even having your genitals questioned. In that cloud of sexist and, I'd aver, racist poison, Caster has kept her dignity.
If she wins gold, I hope it will obliterate the tears she surely must have shed about the brutality with which she has been treated.
3. Luvo Manyonga, who won silver in the long-jump... Four years ago he was leaving behind a promising career in athletics to become a tik (meth) addict, falling prey to a drug that is destroying South Africa's youth. He got banned in 2012 for 18 months.
Just as he started to get things straight again, his coach and mentor died in a car crash in 2014. On the way to the memorial Mayonga bumped into some of his tik friends. He missed the memorial and took up the tik pipe again.
Incredibly, he resumed full training only a year ago, and returned to competition only this year.
Comment