It’s 2012. The glorious summer Olympics are underway in London and the South African lightweight men’s four is sat on the start line. James Thompson, Matthew Brittain, John Smith, and Sizwe Ndlovu are waiting for the starting canon, resplendent in green and gold.
In contrast to most of its African rowing brethren, South Africa has a long rowing history, with the sport having been introduced to what was then the British Cape Colony in 1861 by English settlers. One of the country’s first clubs, Alfred Rowing Club in Zeekoeivlei near Cape Town, remains not only South Africa’s oldest rowing club, but the oldest sports club in the nation at the time of writing. Similarly, the Buffalo Grand Challenge Race was established in 1878 and is still raced today, remaining the premier rowing event in the nation.
The introduction of the system of racial segregation, known as Apartheid, by the National Party in 1948 resulted in South Africa being banned from the Olympic Games from 1964 to 1992. After Apartheid ended in 1994, South African rowers returned to the Olympics with some degree of success. The nation achieved a bronze medal in the men’s pair in Athens, building from several world championship medals in the three years preceding the games.
It was in this environment that each of the four men who would one day become 2012 Olympic champions started the journey that would culminate on an August day at Eton Dorney.
Each learnt to row at school, rising through the ranks of national and then international rowing. Thompson won silver in the lightweight men’s pair in the 2007 U23 World Championships and bronze in the four at the Junior World Championships; Smith won gold in the U23 men’s pairs at the 2010 U23 World Championships, rowing alongside Matthew Brittain to win South Africa’s first gold at a championship regatta.
The final member of the fab four, Sizwe Ndlovu, learnt to row at Mondoer High School in Johannesburg in 1997. One of only four black members on the team (by the end of that season, that number was reduced to just Sizwe), he developed a love and passion for the sport that earned him the nickname “Seize”. Due to his family’s financial situation, “Seize” was forced to take up various jobs in order to pay for his schooling, which involved a 2am paper round at the age of fourteen, and a stint as a police reservist whilst studying at university. During qualification for the 2008 Olympics, Sizwe joined the team three days late as he was burying his mother, resulting in the blame for the boat’s non-qualification falling squarely upon his shoulders.
Being one of the very few black national team athletes in a sport that was predominately white, Sizwe encountered racism throughout his junior and subsequent senior career, ranging from hostility from white athletes to even have him in the boat, to an incident a year before his Olympic triumph where a national team athlete refused to follow Sizwe rhythm in the stroke seat of a four. Most would have quit and walked away, but most people are not Sizwe Ndlovu.
With a restructuring of South Africa Rowing following the Beijing Games, a new high-performance centre was created in Pretoria, centralising rowers in the system and treating them as full-time athletes. With Thompson, Ndlovu, Brittain, and Smith all being placed into a four together, results quickly followed with a silver medal at the 2011 Rowing World Cup 1.
London 2012 and the four made it through to the final. They got off to a fairly inauspicious start, falling to fifth at the first 500m. Slowly, they brought it back by the 1000m, eating away at the pace that had been set by leaders Denmark and then Australia. At 1500m, the crew was fourth. At 1750m, they were still fourth.
With Australia having been dropped slightly, the last 200m was one of the closest finishes in Olympic history, with South Africa beating Great Britain and Denmark respectively to take gold by 0.25 seconds.
As the four were handed their medals and the dulcet tones of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika rang out across Dorney Lake, the journey to the top of the mountain was complete. A nation that had for so long been defined by its separateness from the international sporting arena had proven that it could come together and win, not just a medal, but the hearts of a nation and indeed the rowing world in the process.
Photo credit: ©Liz Henderson, Pexels
