Industry news

Wins, losses and lessons from the Olympics

October / November 2008

Winners become role modes that attract new players to a sport — thus, more buyers of sporting goods. The industry therefore has a vested interest in the performance of our top athletes

Olympic swimmers to resolve problems?

Acommission under the leadership of adv. Norman Arendse (formerly of Cricket SA), with former national team swimmer Kirsten van Heerden (a sport psychologist) and ex-KwaZulu-Natal swim and water polo athlete Rowan Meth (with a legal and labour relations background) as members, will investigate complaints from the swimming team who went to Beijing.

This followed a meeting with Swimming SA president Jace Naidoo, during which it was agreed that an Athletes Commission, to be headed by a former national team swimmer, will in future voice the concerns of the swimmers to management. The swimmers also requested that payment issues be sorted out and that the number of swimming galas abroad in the 12–24 months prior to the Olympics be increased. They also asked that more sports science testing programmes be used to monitor their training and that a sports psychologist assists with their mental preparations.

SA coach Dirk Lange has since announced that he will not be renewing his contract with Swimming SA.

Let’s face it, it is not really about participating — it is the medals and trophies that count. Just compare the gloom that descended as the one medal hope after the other faded in the Olympics to the national euphoria as the Paralymic team made one trip after the other to the podium and the SA national anthem was played 21 times.

From an also there in the Olympics, to a Top Ten country in the Paralympics… and it felt good!

Considering that China was aggressively hunting gold (they had 89), SAs 21 gold Paralympic medals were pretty impressive. Other impressive results were:

Which would probably explain why the Paralympic team attracted so many sponsors, including a top brand like Puma as clothing sponsor (not for the opening ceremony outfits that the team opted not to wear, though, they came from Amber Cascades. Instead, the team chose to wear the formal outfits supplied by Sedgars Sports.)

Natalie du Toit, Ernst van Dyk and Oscar Pistorius have become some of our best known athletes and role models for all SA.

Role models inspire

Just as the long-legged runners from the high-altitude Kalenjin region in Kenya have become local heroes and inspired an entire region to become runners. They have motivated the poor subsistence farmers in the region to start running as a way of earning a living, either by winning prize money or lucrative sponsorships. No wonder Kenyans have won 68 athletics medals — 21 gold — in the twelve Olympic events they had participated in since 1964.

SA, by contrast, with a few exceptions never really excelled at the Olympic Games — not even in the old days before we were banned from competing in the 1960s. In the 17 Olympics we’ve participated in since 1904, we’ve won a total of 69 medals, predominantly in athletics (25), boxing (18), swimming (11), cycling (7) and tennis (6). We’ve won one silver medal in shooting in 1920 and a bronze in rowing in 2004.

The boxing medals (6 x gold, 4 x silver, 8 x bronze) all came before we were kicked out of the Olympic movement — after re-admission our most promising boxers made a living from the sport and professional boxing is not allowed a the Olympic Games.

The cycling medals (gold, 4 x silver and 2 x bronze) were also won pre-60s and apart from Wayne Ferreira’s silver in 1992, the 3 x gold, silver and bronze tennis medals were also won pre-banning.

It is therefore only in athletics (6 x gold, 11 x silver, 8 x bronze) and swimming (3 x gold, 3 x silver and 5 x bronze) that we have consistently performed well.

Now, where would you put your money and efforts if you had the ability to nurture and grow new sporting talent that would inspire youngsters to take up a sport or motivate the oldies to keep on going?

So many countries have shown over the years that they excel in certain sports — and are simply not genetically suited to others.

The Jamaicans in sprinting, Kenyans in middle-distance, the Chinese in gymnastics, Americans in basketball...

Incidentally, not even the mighty Chinese $586-m (estimated) sport-school-driven Plan 119 could change this. Named after the 119 medals available in the sporting codes where Chinese athletes traditionally do not excell (including track and field and swimming), the Chinese went flat out to try and win medals in these sports. They actually won fewer medals in these codes than in Athens in 2004 — but because of the concentrated training that went into preparing their athletes, they nearly doubled the number of gold medals they won in previous Olympic Games.

By sending the biggest team ever to the Olympics (about three times the size of the Paralympic team) SA obviously also hoped to grow as many sports as possible.

While it is wonderful for individual sporting codes like table tennis, beach volleyball, boxing, fencing, gymnastics, judo and wrestling to have athletes competing in the Olmpic Games, its hard to believe that they would have been very inspiring role models as you don’t get much TV exposure when eliminated in the first round.

Aussie expert’s advice for Olympic success

New Balance invited a top Australian sport scientist to share some post-Olympic insights. Wayne Goldsmith had been invited to SA by the hpc

Don’t rush off to see what the winning nations did and then start copying! This is the advice of Australian sport scientist Wayne Goldsmith, who has been involved with the Olympic preparation of the Australian triathlon and swimming teams and UK swimming team, the Wallabies and several other Australian rugby teams.

New Balance invited Goldsmith, who was invited to SA by the hpc in Pretoria, to give a talk in Cape Town about Australia’s winning formula. He gave the following advice:

Australia’s remarkable Olympic improvement (from no gold in 1976 to a consistent Top Ten place since the 1990’s) is usually attributed to two factors: the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the large amount of money they spend on sport.

But, Australian sport is not as cash-rich as most other people believe, says Goldsmith. He recounted how the Australian triathlon team he was helping to prepare for a possible gold medal win in the 2004 Olympics ended up sleeping three to a room in a one-star Greek hotel, with the management and coaches sleeping in the kitchen, on an open verandah and in a van outside.

A far cry from the luxury associated with a lot of money invested in sport! And note: the athletes got the rooms!

The Australians rather spend money on providing the best possible tools and support that will allow talented athletes to perform at their best through the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), which has become a benchmark for sport science and coaching across the world.

Instead of the segmented, individual-discipline-based approach focusing on academic research and clinical trails of the past, Australian sport scientists now work with coaches, federations and athletes as part of an integrated problem solving team, says Goldsmith. “We lead from behind and empower the athletes to make their own decisions and monitor themselves,” he explains. “We embrace the uniqueness of all athletes and encourage them to make their own decisions and solve their own problems.”

All sporting codes also help each other where they can and work close together.

For example, apart from a sport psychologist, top athletes and role models John Eales and Steve Waugh were part of the Australian team at the Olympics. “Athletes found it very helpful to talk to these role models who were there in the capacity of mentors.” he says.

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