Sport in South Africa
Sports in South Africa have a passionate following, although they remain largely divided on ethnic lines.
Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in South Africa. This is particularly popular with the black South Africans who constitute the majority of the population. The national football team is nicknamed Bafana Bafana (meaning the boys, the boys). South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first one hosted in Africa.
Cricket is the second most popular sport in South Africa, and is traditionally the sport of the Anglo-African and Indian South African communities, although it is now followed by members of all races. The national cricket team is nicknamed The Proteas.
Other popular sports include: rugby union, boxing, hockey, surfing, netball and running. Rugby union is a popular sport amongst Afrikaners. The national rugby union team is nicknamed The Springboks.
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. The South African government and SASCOC have been striving to improve – incrementally – the participation of the previously excluded majority in competitive sports (i.e. Blacks in rugby and Whites in association football), but so far with limited success, due to resistance on part of numerous federations.
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[edit] History
South Africa was banned from the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to the apartheid policies. .[1] 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 Proteas 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.
[edit] 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".[2]
[edit] Athletics (Running)
- Major events: Comrades Marathon and Two Oceans Marathon
[edit] Australian Rules Football
Australian rules football is a popular sport in South Africa. Since 1996, the sport has been growing quickly amongst indigenous communities. 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.[3] The first national championships were held in 2008, from which the Lions were selected and finished third overall in the 2008 Australian Football International Cup.
[edit] Canoeing
A number of large canoe events occur annually in South Africa:
[edit] Cricket
Cricket is the second most popular sport in South Africa. It is popular among English-speaking whites. It 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 team include AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel, Morné Morkel, Johan Botha and Dale Steyn.
The team has had success 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 two 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 one of the world's top batsmen, playing for England. 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.
[edit] Cycling
- Major events: Cape Argus Cycle Race and 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 was considered to be a South African team.
Cycling South Africa or CyclingSA is the national governing body of cycling in South Africa.
[edit] Golf
Golf in South Africa has a long and illustrious history and South Africa is 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.
The first South African to win a major championship was Bobby Locke who won The British Open four times in 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1957.
The most famous of South African golfers is however Gary Player who along with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus dominated world golf for much of the 1960s and 1970s. Player won all four majors, winning the British Open in 1959, 1968 and 1974, The Masters in 1961, 1974 and 1978, the PGA Championship in 1962 and 1972 and the U.S Open just once in 1965. Player always played in his trademark black outfits and became one of the recognisable figures in the sport. He also enjoyed considerable success in senior golf, winning six majors on the Champions Tour (then the Senior PGA Tour) from 1986 to 1990. The only other South African to have won a senior major is Simon Hobday, winner of the U.S. Senior Open in 1994.
Current players who have won majors are 1994, 1997 U.S. Open and 2002 British Open Champion Ernie Els, 2001 and 2004 U.S. Open Champion Retief Goosen, 2008 Masters Champion Trevor Immelman, British Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen and 2011 Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel.
The country has had less success in women's golf. The only South African woman to have won a major was Sally Little, who won the LPGA Championship in 1980. Little later became a U.S. citizen and won a second major, the 1988 du Maurier Classic, as an American.
British golfer Justin Rose is South Africa-born, but was raised from age 5 in England, and chose to play his trade for that country.
[edit] Motor sports
South Africa has staged Formula One Grand Prix, the last being the 1993 race at the Kyalami circuit. It has produced one Formula One world champion, Jody Schekter, who triumphed for Ferrari in 1979. South Africa was also one of the host nations for the A1 Grand Prix.
[edit] Rugby league
Rugby league is a popular sport in South Africa. It has a long history, and 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. None of the earlier attempts were 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 were stopped prematurely, causing the cancellation of a third scheduled match in London.
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 were 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 itself.
The rugby league competition in South Africa is the Tom van Vollenhoven Cup.
[edit] Rugby union
Rugby union is 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 Rugby.
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 won the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
[edit] Football
Football is the most popular sport in South Africa.
[edit] Skydiving and Parachuting
There are 20 registered drop zones / skydiving clubs in South Africa, all are affiliated to the Parachute Association of South Africa (PASA).
[edit] Swimming
- Major events: Midmar Mile
[edit] 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. Other South African Grand Slam finalists include Eric Sturgess, Ian Vermaak, Cliff Drysdale, Brian Norton, Sandra Reynoldsa, and Irene Peacock.
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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Traditional sports
Jukskei is a 200 year old folk sport developed and played in South Africa.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- South African Department of Sport and Recreation
- Swimming South Africa
- Rustenburg SkyDiving Club
- Parachute Association of South Africa (PASA)
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