What you make up on the roundabouts, you loose on the swings

South Africans have generally got a lot to smile about sporting wise. For a country as small as ours we have the tendency to produce some of the most tenacious naturally gifted sportspeople in the world. Only Australia has a better reputation for its size.

But lately South African sportspeople have taken their eyes of the ball as it were.

The biggest disparity is in Athletics and Swimming. South Africa made its return into the international Olympic arena at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, South Africa had mixed success with Elana Meyer the only athlete to bring home a silver medal which she came second in the 10 000 m race.

In Atlanta in 1996 we showed the world our true potential, In the pool, Penny Heynes won double gold in the 100 and 200 m breaststroke events while Marianne Kriel won bronze in the 100 m backstroke. On the track, Hezikiel Sepeng won silver in the 800 m, Josia Tugwane won gold in the marathon.

Sydney 2000 was the year that we started to fall. In the swimming Terrence Parkin won silver in the 200 m breaststroke while Penny Heynes won bronze in the 100 m breaststroke event. In Athletics Llewellyn Herbert won bronze in the 400m hurdles and Hestrie Cloetie won silver in the high jump.

In Athens we fared a bit better. Roland Schoeman won bronze in the 50 m freestyle and silver in the 100 m freestyle. The 100 m freestyle relay team won gold. Mbulaeni Mulaudzi won silver in the men’s 800 m while Hestrie Cloetie once again won silver in the woman’s high jump.

So it took us 10 years and 2 Olympic Games to win our next gold medals.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was a write off. Why pitched up no one knows. We won nothing in the pool, a traditional area of strength, and one silver medal on the track with Khotso Mokoena winning silver in the long jump.

Watching the Fina world champs last night, where South Africa still has only won one bronze medal, you ask yourself, where are we going as a nation in a traditional area of strength. Granted we don’t have the money to spend on the development of the sport that countries like the US and Australia have, but something needs to be done to resolve the situation.

What perplexes me is that the majority of our swimmers are based at the top training bases in the US where they get the best training, so why cant they take that training and convert it into results?

The Department of Sport and Recreation did a in depth probe into our abysmal Olympic campaign and paid particular attention to swimming where great things were expected, but nothing materialised.

Poor management was blamed for the fact that we never won a medal. After the 100 m relay team lost the final reports surfaced of descent shown towards the swim teams manager and a scuffle between Schoeman and the manager came to life. Schoeman claimed that the management were unorganised while the management claimed that Schoeman was egotistic.

Whatever the reason was, Government needs to realise that the problem of development exists and that if nothing is done quickly, we are going to have many more lean years. There is no future up and coming swimmers on the horizon that are of the quality of Schoeman and Ryk Neetling.

For the first time in 10 years, South Africa does not have a golfer in the Top 20 ranked golfers in the world. Ernie Els is getting on a bit and Retief Goosen just cant make the grade at major championships. Once again, outside of these two golfers who do we have? Who are our up-an-coming golfers? Since winning the US Masters last year Trevor Immelman has fallen off the map and hasn’t won anything or even threatened to win anything.

The only sports where we have a lot to smile about is Cricket and Rugby. After the win over the All Blacks on the weekend coach Graham Henry said that the current Springbok team is the best he has ever came up against and that it is worthy of the number one world ranking. Bookmakers have South Africa as favorites to win the Tri Nations tournament as a result of Saturdays win. As always John Smit was humble in accepting the accolade of being the best team in the world saying that it is always better to chase the world number one spot then retain it for years on end.

In cricket, even though South Africa lost the home series to Australia, we are regarded as the second best test team in the world, and that could change, should the English be able to reclaim the Ashes. Which is a huge possibility. England has a half decent bowling attack with a decent batting order. Australia has a decent batting line up with a bowling attack that depends a lot on Mitchell Johnson. Johnson has been having a bit of trouble of late since his mom accused his girlfriend of being a sharmooto and a child snatcher in the media. Johnson is dating his 45 year old Karate instructor.... He's only 26.