Paralympics overview by Kwandi

The South African Paralympics team consisted of 34 athletes who were to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, and this is the smallest squad that was taken to the games since the year 1992. These athletes were set out to compete in seven types of sports namely, swimming, equestrian, cycling, archery, athletics, table tennis and wheelchair tennis. The team selection was mentioned on T.V and the athletes were filled with excitement. “What an honour to be selected for my 3rd Paralympic Games. With my current excitement levels, it feels like it’s my first!” said Charl du Toit, who was part of the selected team. She expressed her gratitude to all those who believed in her and invested in her dream. South Africa did very well at the Paralympics well after the baton was passed down to them by the Olympic team. South Africa had Kgothatso Montjane, who is a brilliant female wheelchair tennis, and had represented at the Wimbledon Finals prior to the games. The South African Sports Confederation said they were very confident that the Paralympians would be great ambassadors for our great country. They had very high expectations which were later surpassed by the unfathomable results of the Paralympians who brought home 7 medals in total, exceeding the Olympians.Ntando Mahlangu won 2 gold medals for the men’s 200 meters and long jump and set a new world record in the men’s long jump with a leap of 7.17meters. Ntando has done an outstanding job and performed well in all his events. He was not going to celebrate well when he came back home because he had exams waiting for him immediately.

Overall, South Africa should not look down on the Paralympics and the performance at the Paralympics because the athletes exceeded expectations. A few people did not have a lot of hope in them since the Olympics didn’t go very well. The Olympics took place during August and although the South African Olympians did their utmost best, unfortunately the results were not as expected except for two, Tatjana Schoemaker, who brought home a gold medal for swimming and Bianca Buitendag in surfing who won a silver medal. The rest of the athletes still had a rather interesting time at the Olympics, not forgetting Shaun Maswanganyi, who made a mix-up in the relay. He says he made a mistake that led to the baton exchange with Clarence Munyai. They ended up being too close together and they stumbled over. “ So, what happened was, essentially- coming into the competition, I was practicing exchanges with Gift, you know. I don’t like making excuses, but at the end of the day, I made the mistake,” says Maswanganyi. We as South Africans are proud of all of them because even through everything the country was going through; violence and unrest, they still managed to perform their level best despite all of that. Some of the athletes might have even lost their loved ones during the pandemic yet they all kept a brave face and carried on to represent our country proudly. South Africa has been the hardest hit country in Africa by the pandemic, with well over 50 000 deaths and 1,5 million confirmed cases. “With regards to the issues at hand in our country, we wish you a happy, safe and successful mission at the Games. As you know, we are very competitive and have high expectations, however, we are not putting too much pressure on the athletes.” Said Minister Mthethwa of South Africa. However, the games showcased the lack of preparation and the work needed to compete against the world’s best athletes which is why as South Africa we failed to deliver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. We were also quite disappointed that some of our best athletes Caster Semenya, Luvo Manyonga, Cameron van der Burgh and Sunette Viljoen could not be able to represent South Africa.