Thapelo Molefe
THE South African Olympic team arrived to a heroes’ welcome at the OR Tambo International Airport after one of the country’s most successful campaigns at the international games thus far.
Team SA touched down mid-morning on Tuesday to a thunderous applause from a throng of fans, friends and families who had packed arrival halls which had prior to their arrival had been abuzz with excitement.
The excitement reached fever pitch when the only gold medalist Tatjana Smith emerged from the arrival gates to a wild celebration as the crowd erupted into a frenzy of excitement.
The excitement continued as other medalist such as silver medalists and men’s 4x100m relay quartet of Akani Simbine (30), Shauwn Maswanganyi (23), Bradley Nkoana (19) and Bayanda Walaza (18).
The relay team stunned the athletic world when it powered to second place to claim silver and only losing to Canada in a photo finish that saw Simbine finally winning an Olympic medal after missing marginally in previous gatherings.
Smith hoisted the country’s flag when she won gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke and nearly repeated the feat in the 200m breaststroke only to come second to claim a silver.
” I Just want to say never stop believing in yourself. You can only be the best version of yourself, so find that and hopefully you can get a gold medal too. Never disqualify yourself, I’m a girl from Roodepoort and I made it so why can’t you,” Smith later said.
The other medalists are Jo-Ane van Dyk who brought a silver medal after she came second best after throwing an exceptional 63.93 meters in the final round. Cyclist Alan Hatherly brought home bronze after coming third in the Men’s Cross-Country Cycling Mountain Bike race and became the country’s first-ever South African and African Olympian medalist in that discipline.
He finished 11 seconds behind the gold medalist and mere two seconds the silver medalist.
The South African Sevens Rugby Team were the first to taste victory at the games when they dug deep to beat Australia 26-19 to win bronze.
The overall performance of the team brought to six total of medals and double what Team SA brought from the Tokyo games four years ago. This is the second most successful campaign since South Africa was readmitted in the games after being banned because of the apartheid regime.
The most was successful was 10 medals at the Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie who was on hand to welcome the team at the airport was not short of praises for the athletes.
“Today, we gather to celebrate the triumph of our Olympic heroes. Their dedication, perseverance has inspired a nation. We are proud to call them our own and we look forward to seeing the impact their achievement will have on the next generation of South African athletes,” said the minister.
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