South Africa has not managed to obtain a share of the medals at the Paralympic Games in Paris. Christian Sadie wrapped up the South African Swimming team’s campaign at the Games in the pool with a fifth place in the S7 50m butterfly on Saturday night. The Stellenbosch native was in contention throughout the race and came close to securing the podium place, finishing just .25 of a second outsides of the medals won after equalling his own African record by finishing in 29.94 seconds.
“I’m happy, I’m on my PB, so I can’t ask for much more,” said Sadie after the race. “There were one or two things I could have done a little bit better, but I gave it my all so I’m super happy.” Sadie added that making all four finals of the four events was a significant improvement on his first Paralympics three years ago in Tokyo. “Last time I think I got three out of five, so I’m happy with 100 per cent of finals… now I’m just looking forward to another four years of hard work and coming back again. “I think the first time I went [to the Paralympics] it was the first experience, this time we’ve come and we’ve done better, learned from those mistakes, and I think we have a lot more to learn going forward so I’m super-excited.”
Meanwhile, head coach of the swimming team in Paris Theo Verster hailed his swimmers for their performances at these Games. While none of the five reached the podium, they achieved better results overall than the team in Tokyo three years ago.
Sadie is being modest about his achievement, although he could have done more. However, it is not easy to even break a record given the competition he faced from the other athletes. These athletes were the best of the best when it comes to swimming for their respective countries. So, the pressure to succeed was high. Competing in the Paralympics is never easy even for the disabled. These athletes have trained their whole lives for this moment. There is a lot of pressure on them to succeed. The thousands of spectators and fans who come to watch the games are drawn in by the speed and agility shown by the swimmers. It is all about them having the right diet, and training full time. Sadie for his path had to make a lot of sacrifices on the road to make it to the destination where he is now. There is no doubt that the effort that he put into his training will not be wasted.
Theo Vester had no easy task given the path he played in training the Swimming Team. There is still a lot of lessons to be learned if the team you are playing for is unable to win against their competitors but that can be overcome by learning from the mistakes committed.
“We had just four swimmers there but only made three finals,” explained Verster. “With our team here, we had five swimmers who competed in 15 events and we made 11 finals which is significantly more than previously, finishing between fifth and eighth. We also broke six African records.” Verster also expressed disappointment with the fact that world champion Kat Swanepoel was classed up from S4 to S5 just prior to the Games. “That was three definite medals that we could have got, according to the times that she was swimming and then there were about two or three swimmers that were very close but didn’t convert into medals.
“But I think with the young team we have; the swimmers have performed really well and I am really pleased with their performances. “We would have loved to have brought medals back for South Africa but at the end of the day… we’ve shown that Para swimming is on the right track for the future.
Even though they were unable to bring back medals from these games, their efforts will be much appreciated. Verster for his part has shown that South African swimming should be taken seriously. Although luck may not have been on their side, they contested brilliantly against the other sports teams. There may be disappointment against the odds being displayed but the efforts shows that Sport from South Africa is a force to be reckoned with. Foreign teams contesting in the Paralympics and the Olympics are always tough to beat. Was it fair that Kat Swanepoel was promoted from an S4 to S5 position? Even if this was done appropriately would it have made a difference to South Africa winning a medal if it was not done?
Swimming in the Paralympics although for the disabled still requires a lot of effort and training. To contest against other foreign teams of disabled athletes still requires a lot of strength. Disabled or not these competing teams still put in a lot of determination and grit into their training and competition.
The Paralympics team led by Verster and composed of athletes like Sadie show that even the impossible can be achieved.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
