GOLD!!! South Africa at the Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics are less than a month away and although this edition will be different from others, it remains the pinnacle for most athletes. Team South is slowly being finalized as they look to better an impressive 10 medal haul in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.

To get you in the Olympic mood and festive spirit, we’ve put together the best gold medal performances by a South African at the Olympic Summer Games.

Penelope Heyns

Heyns won the gold medal for the 100m breaststroke (world record) as well as the gold medal for the 200m breaststroke  Olympic record). This made her the only woman in the history of the Games to have won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events while also becoming a darling of the South African public.

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4 x 100 Freestyle Relay Team

The South African team (Roland Mark Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend, and Ryk Neethling) set a new world record of 3:13.17 on their way to South Africa’s only gold of the games. A very celebrated victory during that period.

The Lightweight Fours Rowing Crew

The lightweight fours rowing crew of Matthew Brittain, Lawrence Sizwe Ndlovu, John Smith and James Thompson powered back from a seemingly impossible position to grab the nations third gold medal in London. Team manager Roger Barrow had built a great rowing culture and was deserved of the win, the rowing team claimed more medals four years later.

Cameron Van Der Burgh

South Africa’s Cameron Van Der Burgh set a new world record of 58.46 as he won the gold medal in the men’s 100m breaststroke. Interestingly Van Der Burgh was home trained at the time.

Chad Le Clos

Chad Le Clos shocked the world when he beat the heavily favoured Michael Phelps in the Men’s 200m Butterfly Final to claim gold. Le Clos admitted that his sporting hero was Michael Phelps and said that beating his hero was totally unexpected. A truly unlikely gold at the time

Caster Semenya

Russian Mariya Savinova-Farnosova “won the gold medal” but was later given a four-year doping ban by the court of arbitration for sport and was stripped of her medal. This meant Caster Semenya, who finished second, rightfully claimed gold albeit in 2017.

At the time, she was the London 2012 silver medallist but Semenya confirmed her status as the worlds best in the women’s 800m final in Rio 2016.

Wayde van Niekerk

van Niekerk smashed the longstanding 400m world record held by the iconic Michael Johnson in Rio in a time of 43.03 seconds. He also became the first athlete to win gold from lane 8. This achievement immediately made him a global icon.