Ongama Gcwabe
WITH Team South Africa set to have their first dig at the Paris Games today, Independent Newspapers takes a closer look at the numbers that our country has returned since showing up to their first Olympics over a century ago at St Louis, Missouri.
89-strong
Since 1904, TeamSA has returned a tally of 89 Olympic medals in a total of 20 Games. This is despite the country being subjected to isolation from 1960 to 1992 due to the apartheid.
During the first part of team South Africa’s Olympic journey – from 1904 to 1960 – the team returned home with 51 medals, including 17 gold, 14 silver and 20 bronze medals, with the 1920 and 1952 Games being the most successful during this period as the team bagged 10 medals in each of the Games.
Post-isolation, South Africa has returned 38 medals in eight Games, including 11 gold, 18 silver and nine bronze medals. The 2016 Games in Rio were South Africa’s most successful as the team secured 10 medals, including two gold medals.
From a purely gold medal standard, it could be argued that Stockholm 1912 and London 2012 were the nation’s best Games. In each of those, TeamSA won four gold medals.
Podium dominance
Of the 20 Games that the men and women in the green and gold of South Africa have participated in, the athletics team has bagged the most medals with a tally of 28, including nine gold, 13 silver and six bronze.
The swimming team is in second place with 20 medals – seven gold, seven silver and six bronze medals. Boxing is currently the third-most successful discipline at the Games for SA, with 19 medals, including six gold, four silver and nine bronze – a statistic that makes the non-qualification of any SA pugilists since London 2012 an embarrassing fact.
Cycling sits in fourth place with eight medals, while tennis is fifth with six medals at the Games. The shooting, rowing, surfing, canoe & kayak, triathlon and rugby sevens teams make up the rest of the list with solitary Olympic medals each.
Making a splash
Going into Paris, swimmer Chad le Clos holds the honour of being South Africa’s most decorated Olympian in history with four medals. The 32-year-old will compete in his his fourth consecutive Olympics and given his appetite for success at the Games, he could just extend his lead.
However, fellow swimmer Tatjana Smith, 27, has two medals to her name and is an early favourite to return home with more. Smith will be competing in only her second Olympics and could overtake Le Clos as SA’s most successful Olympian.