It has been a long, cold winter for South African sports. First the lack of performance and in-fighting with the Olympics, then the dismal performance in the rugby and now the train-smash in cricket.

Why is our sport suffering so much recently?

Most of the problems seem to be the in-fighting between coaches, managers and sport leaders. Even certain team members have had clashes with management. It is little wonder that with an unhealthy environment such as this that it has an effect on sports men and womens performances.

There is also a lack of support for our athletes. Take the Olympics for example. Why were the athletes sent home as soon as they had finished their sport? Why were they not allowed to remain behind and enjoy the rest of the games like all the officials? This is hardly an exercise in team building.

Forcing athletes to sign pledges of team spirit etc is another stupid idea. These athletes were there more for their own achievements than that of SA. Of course they are going to give of their best without the need of some stupid pledge form.

Another major factor is the lack of decent money given by the government. Currently the entire Olympic team receives R50-million a year from National Lottery funds. This is a pathetically small amount compared to what most other countries receive. How much is given to rugby and cricket development? Over the years we have seen a massive decline in the Rand, yet have seen very little increase in the funding for sports. How are our athletes and players meant to compete with this?
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Sitting here in Beijing and watching our South African brothers and sisters trying to get a medal and failing miserably, listening to the drama in the swim team and spending way to much money, I was in quite a depressed mood.

And then along came an absolutely sterling performance by Khotso Mokoena in the long jump. From the beginning he looked relaxed and ready to go. And jump he did … all the way to our first medal.

From BlogSouthAfrica: Well done Khotso!

The more I have seen and heard here in Beijing, the more I am convinced that sports in general in South Africa is at a crossroads. Either they can get their sh!t together or this is one of the last medals we are going to see in a very long time.

On Sunday I was sitting with the Hungarian team, chatting about sports in general. It was like chalk and cheese compared to when I met the South African group. The Hungarians had a good team spirit and were really positive about their country and their sports. The atmosphere around the South African group was dismal and depressing in comparison.

There is a total lack of team spirit amongst our athletes. Each seems more focussed on their own lives and achievements. The drama in the SA swim team is exactly what I mean. If you don’t know about the drama, then google it.

We still have a few good events coming up. But I can’t help but wonder if we have seen our one and only medal for these games.

Ni hao

Well I have been in Beijing over the past couple of days to see our boys and girls compete in the Olympics. The whole thing so far as been pretty much mixed feelings.

The opening ceremony was absolutely fantastic! The Chinese really know how to put on a good show. London is going to have to pull out all stops to top this ceremony in 2012. The costumes and the co-ordination of all the participants must have been a tremendous effort.

Moving on to the Olympic events themselves, I will concentrate on South African events only here. In the archery, Calvin Hartley managed to finish in 37th place. It was a good try but he just couldn’t match the other participants. It kind of reminds me of the old days when Malcolm Stewart was aiming for the Olympics. He just did not get good enough support from back home.

The swimming events so far have been really amazing. We can be proud of our team, even though most did not qualify for the semi’s. Six swimmers broke SA records, but the competition has been really very good this year. Out of the six who broke the records, only two have moved up to the next round. Good luck to Lize-Marie Retief (100m butterfly) and Cameron van der Burgh (100m breaststroke).

Another amazing performance came from Suzaan van Biljon (women’s 100 breaststroke) who goes through to the semifinals. She came third in her heat but I feel that she has the ability to get us at least a bronze. Good luck Suzaan!

Although I didn’t attend the rowing event, Rika Geyser (women’s single scull) came in third and also moves into the semifinals. Good luck for Monday Rika!

I think that this Olympic is going to be pretty barren in terms of medals for South Africa. It seems to me that the international athletes have all managed to improve their performances by a huge amount since the last games, but most of our athletes have remained static. Is this because our government has not spent much time and effort on our teams?

It is still early days, so I may be wrong. We still have all the track and field events coming up where we do seem to do better. There is always hope!

Until later - Zai Jian from Zhong Guo