The South African sports community has heaped praise on their Olympic heroes this week, especially the men's 4x100m relay team after their silver medal in Paris on Friday.
In the most dramatic fashion, the team of Bayanda Walaza, Shaun Maswanganyi, Bradley Nkoana and Akani Simbine finished in a time of 37.57 – a new national record - to make history by winning their country's first ever medal in a relay event at the Olympics.
It was a particularly joyous moment for Simbine, who has finished 5th, 4th and 4th in the last three Olympic 100m finals. This, in all likelihood, was his last genuine shot at finally landing an Olympic medal and he took his side home in expert fashion.
Paris 2024 was a spectacle to savour, regardless of where you were from or who you were supporting. For these athletes, the Olympics is the absolute pinnacle, and witnessing four years of sacrifice and training culminating in one race, jump, dive or throw is about as dramatic as sport can be. Some of the performances were exceptional. All were intriguing. All were inspiring.
For Team South Africa, Paris 2024 mut be considered a success. Heading into the Games, there wasn't much hope held out for any near certain medalists outside of breaststroke queen Tatjana Smith and – perhaps – the Blitzboks in the Rugby Sevens. When it was all over, South Africa had bagged a total of six medals – three more than they did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 – with Smith leading the way with gold in the 100m and silver in the 200m.
We loved every second!
