Sport in South Africa

Many sports have a passionate following in South Africa, although they remain largely divided on ethnic lines. The South African government is currently implementing a quota system in sport, according to which sport teams members have to be demographically representative. The most popular sports are cricket, rugby union, football and hockey.

South Africa was absent from international sport for most of the apartheid era due to sanctions, but started competing globally after the country's white electorate voted in a referendum in favour of a negotiated settlement of the apartheid question.

History

Further information: [[:Sporting boycott of South Africa]]

South Africa was banned from the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to the apartheid policies. . This ban effectively lasted until 1992. During this time, some sports people (like Zola Budd and Kepler Wessels) left for other countries in order to compete internationally. Some athletes continued their sports careers in South Africa in isolation, with some starts like women's 400 metres runner Myrtle Bothma running a world record time at the South African championships.

Some sports teams toured South Africa as "Rebel Tours" and played the Springbok rugby and cricket teams in South Africa during the isolation period.

In 1977, Commonwealth Presidents and Prime Ministers agreed, as part of their support for the international campaign against apartheid, to discourage contact and competition between their sportsmen and sporting organisations, teams or individuals from South Africa.

Women's sport

Sport in South Africa is still largely seen (in the words of a former member of Women and Sport South Africa) as "the domain of men". In 1997, one writer described "massive gender inequalities in the sporting structures of the country, and a strong association between sport and masculinity".

Athletics (track and field)

Major events: Comrades Marathon, Two Oceans Marathon

Australian Rules Football

Australian rules football in South Africa is a fast growing team sport , having grown in participation by 159% between 2005-07. Since 1996, the sport has been growing quickly amongst indigenous communities, beginning in the North West province and later spreading to Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape Province through the work of development officers. South Africa's national team made history in 2007 by competing against Australia's best Under 17 players as well as defeating a touring Australian amateur senior team for the first time. The first national championships were held in 2008, from which the Lions were selected and finished 3rd overall in the 2008 Australian Football International Cup.

Canoeing

See also: Canoeing

A number of large canoe events occur anally South Africa

• Dusi Canoe Marathon
• Fish River Canoe Marathon

Cricket

Main article: Cricket in South Africa

Cricket is a popular sport in South Africa, especially among English-speaking whites. It is the second most popular sport and is the only sport in South Africa to feature in the top two sports of all race groups. The national team is known as the Proteas.

South Africa is one of the leading cricket-playing nations in the world and one of ten countries that is sanctioned to play Test cricket. Cricket was traditionally popular among English-speaking whites and the Asian community, though the latter were not able to compete in top-level South African cricket in the apartheid era. Since the end of the apartheid era, a higher proportion of white players have come from Afrikaans-speaking backgrounds, and attempts have been made to increase the number of non-white players, in part through a quota system. The current national team features prominent non-white players, such as Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla (the first Muslim to play for South Africa), Herschelle Gibbs, Monde Zondeki, Loots Bosman, Charl Langeveldt, and Makhaya Ntini. Afrikaners in the tea include AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel and Johan Botha.

The team has had successe with batsmen like Herschelle Gibbs, who is one of the sport's most dominating batsmen, all-rounders like Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock, the former being one of the greatest all rounders of the game, and bowlers such as Makhaya Ntini, who reached number 2 in the ICC Player Rankings in 2006. Dale Steyn is currently ranked as one of the best test bowlers, and captain Graeme Smith is one of the most dominant left-handed batsmen in world cricket today. Wicketkeeper Mark Boucher has the world record for the most number of dismissals for a wicketkeeper and continues playing for the team. Kevin Pietersen, who is white, left the country claiming that he was put at a disadvantage by positive discrimination, and within a few years became ones ofs thes world's tops batsmens playings fors the England cricket team. South Africa is one of the strongest teams and in 2006 in Johannesburg in what was the highest scoring 50 over ODI ever, South Africa led by Gibbs' 175 chased down Australia's mammoth and then world record score of 434-4. South Africa hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup an event that was disappointing to them as they lost against Sri Lanka in what happened to be in a farcical situation and were eliminated on home soil. In the 2007 Cricket World Cup South Africa reached the semi-finals of the event but lost to Australia.

Cycling

Major events: Cape Argus Cycle Race, 94.7 Cycle Challenge

South Africa has a strong cycle race scene. The most notable cyclist is Robert Hunter who won a stage in the 2007 Tour de France. Robert Hunter rode that tour with Team Barloworld who had gained a wildcard entry to the Tour de France that year. Although Barloworld are based in the UK, the team is considered to be a South African team.

Golf

Golf in South Africa has a long and illustrious history, and South Africa is certainly one of the great golfing nations. Golf is easily the best individual sports event that South Africans participate in, with the quantity and quality of South African players being of the top order.

History of Golf in South Africa The most famous of South African golfers is of course, Gary Player who along with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus dominated world golf for so long in the 60's and 70's. In his trademark black outfits, Gary Player was one of the recognisable figures in the sport.

Current greats include major winners Ernie Els, the "Big Easy", Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman. British golfer Justin Rose is South Africa-born, but was raised from age 5 in England, and chose to ply his trade for that country.

Motor sport

South Africa is one of the host nations for the A1 Grand Prix.

Rugby league

Main article: Rugby league in South Africa

Rugby league in South Africa has a long and turbulent history, consisting of no less than three and possibly four different administrative boards, committee or interests over 40 odd years that attempted to establish the game of rugby league in South Africa. Neither, certainly the earlier attempts where very successful.

The first attempted expansion of the code into South Africa was primarily put together by the English and encouraged by the French for the purpose of expanding the game into new nations, that would inevitably bring more tests to the English and French shores, ensuring a lucrative future. At least, that was the plan; however it was not to be, the South African public did not take to the sport and the expansion plans where stopped prematurely causing a 3rd scheduled match in London to not be played.

The second attempted expansion was a strange double act in the 1960s consisting of two separate factions, known as the National Rugby League and South African Rugby League. Each fought for their own survival until the RLIF laid down the law that saw the NRL effectively shut down and its clubs moved to the SARL. All was looking good for SARL until a South African representative team toured Australia and where embarrassingly beaten, enough to discourage South African fans from supporting their national team and thus it never caught on. The 1990s brought forth a more committed band of entrepreneurs. The foundation left by the 1990s administration still lives on today, albeit a former shadow of its self.

The rugby league competition in South Africa is the Tom van Vollenhoven Cup.

Rugby union

The 1906 Springboks team

Main article: Rugby union in South Africa

Rugby union is the a popular sport in South Africa, especially popular among Afrikaners. The national team is known as the Springboks. South Africa hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, in what was their first appearance at the World Cup. The defeat of the All Blacks in the final is remembered as one of the most famous South African sporting moments. The domestic league - the Currie Cup is also played annually, as well as the international Super 14.

After being tainted by associations with apartheid, the Springboks (or 'Boks') have sought to become part of the 'New South Africa', with President Nelson Mandela wearing the Springbok jersey, once only worn by whites, at the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

South Africa are the current World Champions after winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup

Soccer

Main article: Soccer in South Africa

Association Football in South Africa (commonly referred to as soccer), is the country's most popular participation sport, and is especially popular among the Black population. The governing body is the South African Football Association. The county's top league is the PSL, while the main cup competitions are the MTN 8, the Telkom Knockout, the Telkom Charity Cup and the Nedbank Cup.

South Africa is currently finishing preparations to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which they were awarded in 2005. They are also hosts to the 2009 Confederations Cup.

Swimming

Major events: Midmar Mile

Tennis

South Africa used to be a country with good tennis players but this has all but died away with the new post-apartheid administration of the sport. The most recent tennis players who made it into the world top ten rankings are Wayne Ferreira and Amanda Coetzer.

South Africa has only had one grand slam tournament winner, and that was Johan Kriek who won the Australian Open in 1981. He won again in 1982 but had acquired American citizenship and played as an American that year. Kevin Curren made the Australian Open final in 1984, and the following year, shortly after becoming an American citizen, was on the receiving end of the then-17-year-old Boris Becker's famous first win at Wimbledon.

Given South Africa's sunny climate and the abundant tennis courts in the country, it would be surprising if the current lack of top tennis players continued there for any length of time.

Other sports

South Africa has a number of disabled athletes, most notably Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee world record holder at 100, 200 and 400 metres; and swimmer Natalie du Toit, who became the first amputee to compete in swimming at the (able-bodied) Olympics in 2008. In triathlon Conrad Stoltz is a three time Xterra Triathlon world champion, Raynard Tissink is a multiple Ironman champion, Hendrick de Villiers is a ITU World Cup winner and Dan Hugo is an Xterra and multi-sport star.

Traditional sports

Jukskei is a 200 year old folk sport developed and played in South Africa.

External links

• South African Department of Sport and Recreation