Track and field athletes need to find another gear ahead of Paris Olympics

Less than two years out from the 2024 Paris Olympics, South Africa has some real prospects in multiple codes, but if the national squad is going to rake in a bigger haul than last year’s Tokyo showpiece, one piece of the puzzle still needs to be filled – the athletics team needs to break its drought.

Since finishing third overall with six medals at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, led by double medallists Wayde van Niekerk and Caster Semenya, the SA track and field team has not secured a medal at a major global championship.

While sprinter Akani Simbine has spearheaded the charge with a number of near misses, the squad missed out on the podium at the 2019 and 2022 editions of the World Championships, as well as the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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In most sports, after shaking off the effects of enforced Covid restrictions, South African athletes are showing real potential in a wide range of codes. The likes of tennis player Lloyd Harris, triathlete Jamie Riddle, swimmers Lara van Niekerk and Pieter Coetze, and the Springbok Sevens team have all offered indications that South Africa will be chasing podium places in the French capital.

If the nation is to improve on the three medals achieved by the SA squad at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, however, the team is going to need track and field athletes to raise the bar and make a contribution.

Proud history

Since the country made its official Olympic debut in London in 1908, athletics has contributed more medals to South Africa’s overall haul than any other sport.

Of the 89 medals the SA team has earned, 28 have been achieved in athletics. Only two other sports – swimming (20) and boxing (19) – have returned double figures.

In addition, South Africa has secured a record 10 medals at a single edition of the Games on three occasions, and the track and field team made crucial contributions all three times. In Antwerp in 1920 the athletics contingent bagged three medals, at Helsinki 1952 they earned two, and at Rio 2016 they pocketed four.

ALSO READ: Caster Semenya is the epitome of versatility

So, as history indicates, if we’re going to punch above our weight, we can’t do it without the athletics team.

It is, therefore, a little alarming that the nation’s current elite athletes just aren’t punching hard enough.

There is still time for athletes on the fringe and young prospects to raise their game, but that shift in gear needs to be evident as early as next season.

If they can put up a fight at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, it will lift the country’s all-round hopes of a memorable medal haul in Paris.

If they don’t, the squad will battle once again. To perform as a unit, they need to fill every piece of their puzzle.