Five athletes from Stellenbosch University (SU) recently represented South Africa at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Of the five athletes from SU who represented South Africa at the Olympics, four were on the two history-making water polo teams, while the fifth was a swimmer, according to Candice Williams, team manager for the South African women’s water polo team.
This year’s Olympics, which ran from 23 July to 8 August, saw Team South Africa send its women’s water polo team to the Games for the first time ever, and its men’s water polo team for the first time since 1960, according to Williams. While the teams did not yield much success at the Games, the players from SU were proud of their first-time performances, according to Cameron Laurenson, centre back for the South African men’s water polo team.
Lwazi Madi (pictured above) represented Stellenbosch University (SU) and Team South Africa at this year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, along with Cameron Laurenson, Hannah Calvert, Robyn Young and Ross Stone. PHOTO: Supplied/Maties Sport
“Overall, I am extremely proud of the way we performed, despite what the scoreboards showed,” said Laurenson. “We played a good brand of polo. [O]ur lack of international experience had the better of us, ” he added.
Challenges at the Olympic Games
Multiple factors converged to put Team South Africa’s water polo teams at a comparative disadvantage, according to Williams. These included less training time, less international tournament experience, and the absence of a pre-departure camp due to a spike in Covid-19 cases locally.
“Our highest capped player had 56 international games to her name,” said Williams, who put this information into perspective by adding that Team Canada’s highest capped player had 576 international games to her name.
Cameron Laurenson, centre back for the South African men’s water polo team, told MatieMedia about his first Olympic experience at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. “Going into the tournament, our team had simple goals in mind – to be competitive and to inspire the next generation,” said Laurenson. PHOTO: Supplied/Maties Sport
The way forward for water polo
After the challenges they faced at the Olympics, Maties water polo players told MatieMedia about their ideas for improvement moving forward.
“[Water polo is] currently considered a competitive sport,” said Laurenson. He explained that higher classifications, such as ‘high-performance’ sports, opened up opportunities for more benefits for students participating in those sports. High-performance status “affords your code larger benefits in terms of bursaries or scholarships, and enables the university to financially support coaches, as opposed to club fees”, said Laurenson.
Student-athletes play a vital role in the success of Team South Africa, according to Williams. “As a country we lose so much young sporting talent after high school, but tertiary education allows us to retain and nurture that talent,” said Williams.
Student athletes made up half of the country’s Olympic water polo team, thus highlighting their importance, according to Lwazi Madi, SU student and captain of the men’s national team.
“Stellenbosch offers some of the best facilities in the country,” said Madi. “I would like to see more help from Maties High Performance to help develop the athletes further once I have left.”
Maties High Performance is a specialised unit of Maties Sport which provides “evidence-based intervention programmes and professional services” to student-athletes, according to their website.
Candice Williams, team manager for South Africa’s women’s water polo team, pictured above with Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. PHOTO: Supplied/Candice Williams
Being at the Olympics was an exciting experience for players and managers alike, according to members of the South African water polo contingent.
“I actually still can’t believe I was there!” said Williams. “The Olympics is the pinnacle of sport and it was a phenomenal experience, even for us as sport administrators.”
According to both Laurenson and Madi, just competing at the Games was a childhood dream come true.
“The fact that we were not only playing for ourselves, but for everyone at home – especially the younger generations – is something I am very proud of,” said Laurenson.