From todays Sunday Times To get ahead at the Olympics we need to start at school Published:Aug 24, 2008 v To get ahead at the Olympics, we need to plunge in at the deep end Beijing?s the worst we?ve done for more than 50 years, writes David Isaacson. It?s time for a fresh start Preparing Olympic stars must ultimately start at school level. International journalists in Beijing were taken to a local sports school where children, few older than 10, performed incredible gymnastic feats Ryk Neethling sat in the Olympic Village, discussing the ills of South African sport. Funding was a key issue, naturally. The monthly stipends given by the National Olympic Committee of SA to athletes were useful, he said, but the problem was that the money was made available no more than 18 to 24 months before the Games. ?It takes four years to prepare for an Olympics,? he said. Figuring out the problem isn?t rocket science. Quite simply, SouthAfrica has yet to develop an Olympic programme with clearly defined targets. Administrators, with few exceptions, have remained amateurs, happy to go to the Games on a wing and a prayer, while the top nations of the world have become true professionals. The lack of medals in Beijing wasn?t simply the result of poor preparation over the past four years, it was because of poor planning over the past 12, maybe 16 years. There was much euphoria after Atlanta 1996 when SA ? with three golds from a total of five medals ? finished above Britain on the medals table. Britain set about spending fortunes to change its fortune; South Africa gloated. Britain squeezed into the top 10 in 2000 and again in 2004. After spending a reported ?265-million in the past four years, its reward in Beijing will certainly be a top-five finish, maybe even third place, above Russia and Australia. But cash alone is not the answer, warns Dr Ross Tucker of the Sports Science Institute of SA. ?We can throw money at the thing all we want, but until we invest in the right expertise, it will be wasted. It took Britain years to really see the fruits of their labour and investment. ?The secret? Investment in the people and the expertise of their coaches and management structures, which filters down to the athletes.? Tucker?s point is driven home by the frightening statistic that South African sport gets R500-million a year from the national lottery alone, excluding sponsorships and limited government funding. Sport sponsorship alone exceeded R5-billion last year, although about half of that was spent on advertising. Even so, barely a sausage went to Olympic sports, with soccer, rugby and cricket getting the biggest share. Swimming SA and Athletics SA have modest sponsorships, but the parent SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) ? created in 2004 by amalgamating bodies like the National Olympic Committee of SA (Nocsa), the Commonwealth Games Association, Disability Sport, and the statutory Sport Commission ? received nothing. Sascoc?s creation was a direct result of what was considered a disastrous performance at the Sydney 2000 Games, where SA won five medals, but not a single gold. Then minister of sport Ngconde Balfour established a ministerial task team that eventually recommended a single body to oversee high-performance sport. But preparing Olympic stars must ultimately start at school level. International journalists in Beijing were taken to a local sports school where children, few older than 10, performed incredible gymnastic feats. The boys were pre-pubescent, but already they had clearly defined muscles. That?s the sort of commitment required. An Olympic programme would surely have to prioritise certain sports, and the key ones would obviously be athletics and swimming. Both face administrative challenges ? problems within ASA have been well documented in this newspaper, while swimming?s inability to adequately manage its US-based stars has become glaringly obvious. Dr Ekkart Arbeit, ASA?s head coach , is to submit a report making recommendations to uplift the sport. He says a major problem is that there are no paid coaches in South Africa, nor is there a systematic method of talent identification.Nations are allowed three entrants per athletics event, yet South Africa was unable to field a full complement in a single competition in Beijing, not even the marathon. No South African was good enough to compete in the 5000m and 10000m races. South Africa needs to find an event, maybe two, on which to concentrate and become world leaders. Kenya?s 3000m steeplechase runners have taken every gold since 1984; China has enjoyed table tennis medals at every Olympics since 1992; and Indonesia has had badminton success every time since 1992.martelpypie2008-08-24 03:05:51
