S/Africa Hails White Medalists, Wants More Blacks
South Africa's Olympics chief is a conflicted man, proud of all his athletes yet openly disappointed the team doesn't fully reflect the dramatic changes in his country.
Even as he celebrates the four medals won thus far -- by white swimmers and rowers -- Sam Ramsamy yearns for the day when he is no longer asked, ``Why does your team have so few blacks?'' ``We can't change the demographics overnight,'' Ramsamy said. ``But it's important that we try.''
During the apartheid era, when South Africa's white minority wielded power with an array of repressive laws, Ramsamy was an activist in exile, helping coordinate an effective international sports boycott.
In 1992, as apartheid was giving way to democracy, South Africa returned to the Olympics after a 32-year absence with 96 athletes, only 10 of them black. Twelve years later, with his anti-apartheid colleagues from the African National Congress entrenched in power for a decade, Ramsamy regrets that a nation that is 80 percent black has sent a team to Athens that still is 80 percent white.
``It's an indictment on all of us in South African sport,'' Ramsamy said when the 106 athletes were announced last month. ``The Olympic team comes largely from the advantaged sector. ... At the moment not everyone has equal opportunities.''
Here in Athens, Ramsamy and his compatriots reveled when South African swimmers set a world record while winning gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay. Relay anchor Roland Schoeman won individual silver and bronze medals, and South Africans won a bronze in pairs rowing.
There have been disappointments as well. World champion high jumper Jacques Freitag, recovering from an ankle injury, failed to reach the finals. The men's and women's field hockey teams fared poorly. The men's soccer and baseball teams -- which competed four year ago in Sydney -- didn't even qualify for these games.
Ramsamy said in an interview that efforts to change the racial mix on future Olympic teams will focus on a handful of sports popular among South Africa's blacks -- notably track, soccer and boxing.
``We have a very serious problem in boxing,'' he said. ``As soon as we prepare our boxers, the promoters steal them. They're not very adequately paid in the amateur ranks, and just a few thousand dollars makes such a difference in their lifestyle.''
He said soccer development programs should be bolstered for men and women. Teams qualifying in that sport would likely be predominantly black, helping tilt the makeup of the entire Olympic team.
Basketball, not yet widespread in South Africa, is considered another promising sport for blacks. But some Olympic sports are hard to change because of their cost, Ramsamy said, citing rowing, sailing and canoeing.
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