SA'S BEST Tatjana Smith was the shining light for South Africa at the Paris Olympics in 2024. Picture: Michael Sherman/IOL Sport
Image: Michael Sherman/IOL Sport
Tatjana Smith was the shining light for South Africa at the Paris Olympics in 2024, in a year which gave a glimpse of the huge potential of the Rainbow Nation on the athletics stage.
Smith was Team South Africa’s top achiever at the Paris Olympics with the gold and silver medal in the 100 metre and 200 metre breaststroke respectively.
It brought her medal tally in the Olympics to four, with one gold and one silver in each of the two editions she competed. Her two golds and two silvers meant Smith is South Africa’s most decorated Olympian.
Smith then shocked South Africa and the world as she announced her retirement at the age of 27.
As Smith bowed out of the sport, however, her achievements in the pool will serve as inspiration for future generations of SA athletes.
Chiefs among those athletes for the future is Bayanda Walaza.
At the age of 18 and having served a crucial part of SA’s 4x100m relay team which won silver, lofty expectations have already surfaced for Walaza.
Walaza was part of the men’s 4x100m relay team alongside Akani Simbine, Shaun Maswanganyi and Bradley Nkoana.
It was a stunning race, in which Team SA finished second behind Canada while the much-fancied USA outfit fumbled a changeover before being disqualified.
Of the SA men’s 4x100m team, the 31-year-old Simbine was the only runner over the age of 23. Nkoana is 19, while Maswanganyi is 23.
It was a fitting end to the Olympics for Simbine in particular.
For the last decade Simbine has been among the best sprinters in the world, but never claimed a World Championship or Olympic medal. This even despite setting a new South African record in the men’s 100m final in Paris, when he clocked 9.82 seconds in what was the closest final in modern history with electronic timing.
American Noah Lyles claimed victory in 9.79, Kishane Thompson of Jamaica was second in 9.79 and another USA runner Fred Kerley claimed bronze in 9.81.
Therefore, for Simbine to finally claim that elusive medal with such a young and inexperienced team was quite possibly the moment of a lifetime for the SA sprint legend.
In contrast, Walaza’s athletics journey is only just beginning and he proved just that less than a month later at the Under-20 World Championships in Peru. There Walaza completed the sprint double with gold in the boy’s 100m and 200m. There’s no doubt then, that SA sprinting is in good hands.
In the women’s javelin Jo-Ane Van Dyk was another star for Team SA as she produced a performance of a lifetime as she bagged silver at the Paris Olympics.
It was an incredibly impressive performance from the 27-year-old Van Dyk who adds Olympic silver to her list of achievements including her two African Championship titles.
In the men’s mountain bike cross-country 28-year-old Alan Hatherly also produced a spectacular performance to earn a silver medal.
The first medal for Team SA, however, came from the Blitzboks in the rugby sevens competition.
One of the major disappointments of the Paris Olympics, though, was the performance of Wayde van Niekerk. The world record holder and 2016 Olympic champion chose not to compete in his favoured 400m event, and instead he went in the 200m only.
The decision though, could not really be questioned as the 32-year-old's form in the 200m leading up to the games was slightly better. That mattered little as he crashed out in the semi-finals as his career seems to be coming to an end. Van Niekerk never reached the heights he did in 2016 at the Olympics and 2017 at the World Championships, after picking up a serious knee injury.
In late 2017, at the age of 25 Van Niekerk played in a celebrity touch rugby match and the injury he sustained altered the rest of his career - despite his best efforts, the prime years of his career were essentially lost.
Overall, It was indeed quite a year for South African athletes, and there will be renewed optimism that in 2025 the Rainbow Nation see some of its young stars take the mantle forward in giant leaps and bounds.
Here’s hoping anyway.