Wayde van Niekerk: A champion athlete who always gets back up

It’s a cliche, but we can describe Wayde van Niekerk’s career in just one phrase: You can’t keep a good man down.

After finishing fourth in the 200m final at the World Junior Championships in 2010, at the age of 18, Van Niekerk’s early struggle with injuries resulted in long-time coach Ans Botha urging him to move up to the less explosive 400m distance.

And the one-lap event fitted him like a glove.

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Having shifted to the senior division, he lowered his 400m personal best every year between 2012 and 2016, ultimately setting a world record of 43.03.

Between 2014 and 2017, he ran rampant, winning gold at the African Championships, Continental Cup, World Championships (twice) and the Olympic Games.

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Even at his best, however, Van Niekerk spent as much time up as he did down.

Seeing him lying on the ground after a race is not an unusual sight, due to his desire to push himself to the limits of his physical potential, and after winning his first world title in 2015 he had to be stretchered off the track and briefly hospitalised.

And after hurting his knee in a touch rugby match in 2017, it seemed like he had been knocked down for good, his sporadic attempts at a top-flight return having since been hampered by further injuries.

Fighting back

But the best thing about Van Niekerk is that he always gets up.

After leaving the hospital at the 2015 World Championships, he returned to the team hotel to conduct media interviews, and if you wait long enough after a race, you’ll eventually see him lift himself from the floor, looking ready to go again.

And though we must surely have been on the verge of writing him off, five years after that fateful day in 2017, he has picked himself up once again, clawing himself back into contention at the highest level of the sport.

Van Niekerk was sublime in the 400m heats at the World Championships in Eugene this week, and though he went on to finish fifth in the final at the weekend, 30-year-old Van Niekerk said it himself when he announced on social media: ‘I’m back!’.

And, based on his previous results, we shouldn’t be surprised.

With a bit more strength, and some more confidence, he should be a real force over the next couple of years and he’ll have his sights firmly set on reclaiming his Olympic title at the 2024 Paris Games.

Back in full flight, if he can now stay injury free, it would be unwise to bet against him.

Like all good men (and women) you just can’t keep a champion athlete down.