Young sports stars who made a mark

Youth Day is a commemmoration of the 1976 Soweto Uprising. South Africa proudly boasts bright young athletes who have excelled in their sporting codes.
Here are some South African athletes who took the world of sport by storm at a very young age.

Graeme Smith

Following Shaun Pollock’s departure as the South African cricket captain, Smith was handed the important role with only eight test matches and 22 One Day International events behind him. Smith was only 22 years and 82 days old, and was the youngest ever South African Cricket captain. Even though this decision was criticised, the young captain proved his wits and will long be known as one of South Africa’s greatest captains. He is currently the most successful test captain, overtaking Australian captain, Ricky Ponting’s record of 48 test victories with a total of 53 test victories under his captaincy.

Os du Randt

Du Randt is a former South African loosehead prop who retired as the most-capped forward in the history of the Springboks. Du Randt played his first world cup for the winning South African side in 1995 at the age of 22, and since then, he was the only South African to ever have won two world cups, by playing again for the South African team in 2007, which was also his final match. He is among a very select group of 20 international dual Rugby Union World Cup winners worldwide.

Caster Semenya

In 2008, Semenya won gold in the Commonwealth Youth Games in the 800m with a time of 2:04.23. At the age of 18, Semenya won gold at the women’s 800m at the 2009 World Championships with a time of 1:55.45. Semenya also won silver medals at the 2011 World Championhips and the 2012 Summer Olympics. On April 16, Caster became the first person to win all three of the 400m, 800m, and 1500m titles at the South African National Championships. 

Wayde van Niekerk

At only 23 years of age, Wayde has already accomplished so much, but is still on his way to race through a lot of records in the future. He currently holds the South African record for the 400m with a time of 43.48 seconds. In 2014 Wayde took a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games and also took a bronze for the 4x400m relay at the 2013 Simmer Universiade. He also represented South Africa at the 2015 World Championships in athletics where he took a gold medal in the 400m, making him the reigning world champion. In 2016, he broke the 10 second barrier for the 100m, making him the first man to break the 10 seconds for the 100m, 20 seconds for the 200m and 44 seconds for the 400m.

Chad le Clos

Like Wayde, Chad is still young at only 24 years old, but has accomplished so much and took the world by storm. Le Clos is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion, as well as the Commonwealth record holder in the 50 m and 100 m butterfly. He was able to take five medals at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics and won the Overall Swimming World Cup three times in 2011, 2013 and 201Smith by