Money truly does make the world go round and this adage rings true when looking at the parking lots of many of our rugby, soccer and cricket teams.

A car might be a bad way of judging one’s riches but it does give one an indication of the lavish lifestyles some of our sport stars are living.

But the question beckons where do all these millions come from? The answer is rather simple, the little box that occupies many of our lounges and bedrooms, the television.

With television comes money because business wants exposure or to be associated with someone in the lime light.

Rugby, soccer and cricket have enjoyed heaps of television coverage for many decades in this country and it is through them being constantly in our faces that sees them hold the keys to the purse.

As much as audiences are endless in watching these three major sporting codes, there is an even bigger audience for other sporting codes come the Commonwealth Games, All Africa Games and the Olympics.

I agree that these big sporting events only come once every two to four years but what television and the big-spending companies fail to understand is that there are other events in between leading up to the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.

I say this because it has become extremely sad to listen to hourly radio bulletins of our domestic athletics meetings while cycling, hockey, gymnastics, wrestling and road running would be lucky to even get an hour of radio in a year.

But it is these minor sporting codes that we tend to look at during the Olympics and when they fail we are very quick to lambaste their administrators and the athletes alike for embarrassing our country.

What to me is embarrassing is the fact that big television corporations like our national broadcaster SABC, SuperSport and e.tv have failed to bring us live events of these minor sports but they never seem to have limited resources when it comes to the big three.

I understand that rugby, cricket and soccer command major viewership figures but I also believe that the standard of athletics, hockey and cycling will improve and become better with television coverage which will inevitably bring in more spectators and ultimately the big money spenders to sponsor our other sports.

It is sad to hear that 800-metre world champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi hardly has any sponsors while little kids at the Sharks, Western Province and the Bulls are given hefty contracts with expensive cars that are littered with various company logos.

And the justification for all the sponsorship is on the word of some coach or scout that the player might one day become a Springbok and yet Mulaudzi is not a fledgling star but one that has already conquered the world.

Without money being poured into our Olympic sporting codes we will continue to hang our heads in shame after major sporting events because we have failed to invest in the infrastructure and athletes that matter.

Television and any company and individuals with some spare cash lying around need to come to the party and throw around their cash where they will get plenty of returns instead of at rugby and soccer prima donnas who shame us on a weekly basis in the Super 14 and fail to qualify for major soccer events and can only do so when they are hosts.

If without money we can produce world champions in boxing, swimming, athletics and karate imagine what a few millions here and there would do.

Let’s put our money where our mouths are.

When I was first exposed to sports science in the early 90’s I was a huge sceptic. “How can science replace hard training and guts and heart?”

The win by Alberto Salazar over Nick Bester in the 1994 Comrades Marathon seemed to vindicate my thoughts. Salazar had the audacity to break very early in the race and open a huge lead. Bester on the other hand was relying on what his heart rate monitor was telling him and only started to really chase the American with just over 8km to go and came very close to catching him. My, and many other people’s reasoning, was that had Bester raced according to his gut instinct and not kept his eyes glued to what his heart rate was doing, he may well have won.

But the reality is that without sport science, sporting performances would not improve. Think back a bit. Athletics used to be held on cinder tracks that became mud when it rained, thereby hampering performance. Now with synthetic tracks that problem is no more. Athletes wear streamlined clothing, clothing that breathes and dries quickly. Remember Cathy Freeman in her full body suit in the 2000 Olympic 400m final?

What about aerodynamics in cycling or motor racing for that matter. That is sport science. The soccer ball has evolved from a leather ball that became soaked and heavy when it rained but is now designed in such a way that it flies faster and farther than ever before. The list goes on.

The Eastern Bloc countries during the communist era put their athletes on systematic drug regimes. This too is sport science, be it of the unethical kind where sport doctors and scientists use drugs that have been designed for medicinal purposes to enhance athletic performance. Another classic case of sport science gone bad is the swim suit issue where world records where tumbling left right and centre to the point that the worlds elite have cried out for the banning of these suits and some have even called for swimming in a speedo again.

Thankfully FINA have now made a rule that for men only the shorts that go to the knee are allowed, no more body suits, and for the ladies it is the bather that goes to the knee. Sadly though the credibility of the sport of swimming has already taken a huge knock.

Now athletes are preparing for their moments of glory at High Performance Centres or training camps. Font Romeu in the Pyrenees in France is the favoured altitude-training centre of one Paula Radcliffe. The HPC (High Performance Centre) in Pretoria is regularly visited by the Swedish swimming team, German athletes, English swimmers and the list goes on. Potchefstroom has been a favoured training centre for many years for international athletes, as has Stellenbosch. At their disposal are physiotherapy, sports doctors, sports scientists, the latest gym equipment and highly trained gym instructors as well as dieticians. All of this to help eke out just that extra iota of performance.

Triathlon South Africa recently appointed a High Performance Manager who as one of her first acts got the elite triathletes together and conducted a battery of tests on them. Simple things such as pacing, warm up techniques and very importantly, fatigue measurements will now make a huge difference in the approach to training and racing that the athletes have.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Great Britain ended up fourth on the Olympic medals table after identifying specific sporting codes in which they knew they would bring home medals and pumped money and expertise into those codes to the point that specific sporting codes had specific training centres. A classic example of the combination of High Performance Centres, sport science, a squad and money well invested was their cycling team who brought home 12 of the 47 medals that Great Britain raked in.

Speaking of cycling. The great Lance Armstrong was meticulous in his preparation for the Tour De France. He would spend hours in the wind tunnel on his bike looking for the most aerodynamic position. And to get back to my original point about heart, guts and sheer tenacity, well Armstrong had that in abundance.

So I guess I have changed my tune over the years. I still believe that without heart and guts and tenacity and the willingness to suck up some pain, no athlete will ever perform. But the evidence of success of sport science, training camps and High Performance Centres is so huge and it is so clear that without the aid of science and everything that comes with it, sport will not improve the way the public and the sponsors demand.

The year of 2010 starts off with a heavy heart in road running and athletics circles around the country.

On January 7, prominent coach Dave Spence passed away, aged 62, and taking with him a vast amount of athletics knowledge across the athletics spectrum.

Born in 1947, Spence has been intricately involved in athletics, both as a competitor and then as a coach.

His coaching years started off in 1978 with South Africa still banned from international competition due to the apartheid era and one can well remember him poring over the world rankings lists and wondering just how South Africans would fare.

One thing is for sure, he would most certainly have had an Olympian athlete under his belt. He trained policeman Johan Rossouw, whose 10.06 run in Johannesburg in 1988 is still the second fastest local athlete over the 100 metre dash. His 10.06 would comfortably have qualified him in the men’s sprint final, won by the disgraced Ben Johnson.

But it wasn’t only the elite athletes that he cared for — he also coached Pinelands athlete Makhosonke Fika to a 2hr 10min marathon best and helped thousands of athletes to the finish line of various ultra-marathons – but also the so-called rank and file athletes.

Fast or slow, Dave had as much time for his loyal group of athletes and come howling summer south-easter or stormy rain-bearing north-wester Dave could be found blowing his whistle and encouraging his athletes at the Lower Oval in Pinelands.

He made training a pleasure, had nicknames for every athlete, Mighty Mouse, Spider-Legs, Bullet, Shonks, were just some of them!

Blessed with a wicked sense of humour he was particularly amused by two of his female athletes skipping hill-training on one occasion because the lure of chilled white wine simply proved irresistable.

In fact he even went on to refer to any over-indulgence on behalf of his athletes, as “hill-training”

It’s not a well-known fact but Dave was the first baby in South Africa to undergo a full blood transplant, shortly after his premature birth but true to his humble nature, he didn’t make much of it.

Fundamental in the success of Pinelands Athletic Club, Dave later went on to oversee the Adidas Athletics club and was also the hugely successful Two Oceans “virtual coach” … overseeing thousands of nervous debutants in the popular Cape classic.

In recent years he also sought to impart some of his vast knowledge into the stars of tomorrow and to this end worked closely with Olympic silver medallist Elana Meyer’s Jag Foundation.

He may no longer be with us now but Dave’s legacy will live on… on the athletics tracks and roads around the country, and yes, even in many a post-exercise “hill-climbing session”.

Yet another familiar face and voice on the athletics and road running circuit, George Koertzen, also passed away mid-January, aged 52, while out cycling. He had suffered a previous heart attack in the latter stages of 2009.

A familiar (and loud!) voice at many Johannesburg road races and events, George, who always had an opinion on any given subject, was a regular sight on the Two Oceans route, yelling out encouragement and a fair amount of good natured abuse in the final stages of the event.

Road running will be sadly quieter for both their passing.

The doomsayers are predictably having a field day in the wake of the weekend attack on the Togolese team bus en route to the the Africa Cup of Nations competition in Angola.

Three people lost their lives in the horrific attack and it wasn’t long before the cry went out: What about the 2010 Soccer World Cup that is on our very own doorstop? What about the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India? What about the 2012 Olympics in London, England.

Well what about them? The truth of the matter is that there will always be some sort of risk involved in high profile events, be they of a political or sporting nature.

It’s only natural that those responsible for the attacks will seek to garner the most “publicity” out of such a deed, so the more higher profile  the event the greater the chance of their voices being heard.

After all, honestly, how many people had heard of Cabinda, a sliver-type Angolan enclave in neighbouring DR Congo before the weekend. Even less would have heard about those responsible for the attack — The Forces for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda-Military Position (FLEC-PM).

Already people have asked how safe are the 2012 Olympics in London going to be in the light of the killing of a policeman by suspected dissident IRA terrorists in Craigavon, Northern Ireland.

That’s a trifle removed from London but then again there are a disturbing number of people out there who are firmly of the belief that Africa is one big country, so if it happens in Cabinda it must be able to happen in Cape Town.

The Queen’s Baton Relay happened to be in Cape Town on January 10 on its tour of the Commonwealth nations en route to New Delhi venue for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in October, and members of the Indian delegation confirmed that line of thinking. “If anything bad happens in Pakistan then the perception is that anywhere in India is unsafe. That’s just the perception of people who don’t know better”

But memories are short — the Rugby World Cup, the Cricket World Cup, the British and Irish Lions rugby tour, the Indian Premier League (actually moved TO South Africa because of safety fears) have all come and gone without incident. The touring English cricketers are still with us and enduring a happy tour, and they’ll be a whole lot happier if they clinch the Test series.

No-one is denying security fears … that would just be stupid in this age that we live in.

The cerebral thing to do from tragic incidents like that in Cabinda is to use them to the tournament’s advantage. Check and double-check the security arrangements etc. Increase them if need be, just make sure that everything is in place. Africa (and the world) must take note and do everything in their power to reduce the threat of terrorism.

Of course something could go wrong, after all, human nature is fallible. No security is absolute but to borrow that most cliched of phrases when used to discuss crime in South Africa: “no stone can be left unturned” in the bid to make the 2010 Soccer World Cup a safe and secure event.

Every year it falls to me to compile a list of the 10 top sports stars and teams for The Star newspaper’s annual Top 100 list of the South Africans who filled our pages and helped write our headlines.

There are rules to the Top 100, almost as many as the breakdown laws in rugby, the main difference being that unlike, say, Stuart Dickinson, we at The Star interpret them strictly to the letter.

One of those rules for the Top 100 is that a person cannot be named twice in the 100, which means that we in sport usually have to succumb to the wiles of the good people on the news desk when they want to take one of our sports stars for “Newsmaker of the Year”.

Last year we lost Natalie du Toit to them after she became the Belle of Beijing for qualifying for the Olympics and competing hard in the open water swim. Her outstanding turn at the Paralympics a month later meant that she became the sports story of 2008 and, so, news nicked her from us. Still, we had Oscar Pistorius, Hilton Langenhoven and Khotso Mokoena from the SASCOC stable to put on our list, and also, as memory serves, found some space for Burry Stander, the mountain bike star.

This year’s list has followed a similar course, and without actually revealing what the final list will be – you’ll have to buy The Star sometime in mid-December to find out – we are expecting another female star to be taken from the sports list and on to the newsmakers.

Caster Semenya was the sports story of 2009 for the wrong reasons as much as the right reasons, and the ramifications of her story continue to be felt in athletics circles. On purely sporting terms, she may have been number one on the sports list, but she was up against some stiff competition.

Graeme Smith and his team kicked the year off with a bang by their victory in Australia, the first time in almost two decades a visiting team had beaten Australia at home. Who could forget Smith walking down the steps in the members stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground, his cast having been cut off his broken hand as he attempted to save the third and final Test.

The series already won, his action were not necessary, but they were sporting drama of the highest order. But cricket is not an Olympic sport, more’s the pity, although they did give us that gold medal at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in 1998.

South African rugby had the most outstanding year, and as we speak the South African Rugby Union has been parading the trophies John Smit’s Springboks and Paul Treu’s Springbok Sevens team won this year. Smit and Co beat the British and Irish Lions, won the Vodacom Tri-Nations, while Treu’s team won the IRB World Series for the first time, and by some distance.

Chuck in the Vodacom Super 14 trophy the Bulls took by thumping the Chiefs at Loftus Versfeld and rugby had a blinder.

Fourie du Preez is surely the best player in world rugby, and surely a shoo-in for the IRB Player of the Year… mind you, the ICC played silly buggers with their awards, so we shall wait and see.

The money that Sasol is putting into Sevens rugby is extremely good news for SASCOC after the news that Sevens, along with golf, will be a sport at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. For them it is a sport that already has a solid infrastructure, excellent funding, the best coaching and has a professional player base. They are a sure medal chance for Rio and will take care of themselves, with the minimal of supervision from SASCOC.

Mbulaeni Mulaudzi will make The Star’s Top 10, for sure. His brave run in the World Champs 800m in Berlin was overlooked in the nonsense that went on when the team came back, which was sad. So, too, does Khotso Mokoena deserve a spot in the Top 10 for his silver medal in the long jump, but he is up against stiff competition.

Terence Parkin won seven swimming gold medals in the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei in the 50, 100, and 200 metres breaststroke, the 200 and 400 metres individual medley, and the 200 and 1 500-metres freestyle. He also won bronze in the road race, cycling having become another string to his bow in recent years. So, Parkin must crack the nod.

We cannot leave our Burry Stander, a man destined to be a superstar on the mountainbiking circuit. His win in the under-23 world champs in Australia was dominant in every aspect. He also won his first elite World Cup competition. So, he’s in, too. Then there’s Cameron van den Burgh, who beat Michael Phelps in the pool, Kathryn Meaklim broke the world record in the 400m IM short course champs in Singapore; Roland Schoeman has hit form and is winning again.

It is not going to be easy whittling that list down to 10, which is a sign of one thing – South African sport, despite being on the news pages more than they would like, has had a really good year. We would do well not to forget that.

The unconditional apology by ASA to Caster Semenya, her family, and the President and people of South Africa over the handling of the gender tests was apparently initiated by the African National Congress Caster Semenya Support Task Team media statement of 16 October.

While neither condoning nor supporting the role of ASA, team management or the President Leonard Chuene, that particular ANC statement continues the original demands for a similar apology from the IAAF.

This mirrors the position promoted by the ASA President, and subsequently the ASA council, since the saga began in Berlin when Chuene stated he resigned from the IAAF council in protest at the international body’s handling.

ASA have always contended that everyone from the individual runner, through club and province to the council and board are part of ASA, In this regard, and the choice of wording, the apology can be deemed to come from the organisation, whereas many components of ASA have attempted to distance themselves from aspects of Berlin. Perhaps the release would have had greater resonance were it to have been more direct and come from Council, Team Management, Board and President. It is their actions and decisions during and after Berlin that have been under question.

The focal issue with regards to Chuene in recent weeks was the admission that he, and the ASA General Manager, had lied about having knowledge of the gender testing in South Africa. It is this action that and the overall handling of the case that has damaged the ASA reputation more than discussion of the actual decisions taken in the case.

Thursday’s announcement by SASCOC that the whole ASA board, members of staff and President Chuene are to be suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation needs to be kept in perspective separating the process and formalities of the case from hype and confusion created by approaches adopted on the ground.

Opinions are split on whether the decision to take Semenya into the competition was correct or not. It would seem many people fail to recognize the nature, process and failure of the gender testing guidelines.

There is a logic that can support Chuene’s decision to let Caster run, providing it was also the desire of the athlete. This presumes that the athlete had been given a realistic understanding of the potential outcomes, and while it seems she was approached, it is unlikely that she, or indeed anyone else, could have foreseen the current debacle.

In adjudicating the logic of Chuene’s decision to overlook the advice of Harold Adams, it is important to recognize the following:
•    The issue is NOT one of being male or female, but of having an advantage over other athletes running in a race specified for women.
•    Gender testing is done against an outcome derived from a diversity of tests. By their own admission there is no IAAF rule, only guidelines as to how this advantage may be assessed, and indeed indicators of a borderline status. It is entirely possible for various combinations of experts to come to differing conclusions as to the advantage an athlete may or may not have in a women’s race. (This will undoubtedly be seen in the Court of Arbitration should the IAAF decision go against Semenya)
•    By its very nature it would be impossible for a test undertaken on 8 August to have a conclusive result by 13, 14 or even the opening day of the Berlin competition. This point is underscored by the fact that results from IAAF tests taken at the World Championships were only available in September and then required a further two months and the considered opinions of eight specialists to reach any form of consensus of opinion. This is currently expected to be announced in two weeks time.
•    Questions are overdue on the role and interpretation of Doctor Harold Adams. On what basis did he recommend withdrawal, and perhaps more pertinent with which of his many hats was he speaking?  Dr Adams not only sits on the IAAF Medical committee, but is Medical chair of ASA, was apparently at Mauritius as the Championship medical officer, while he was ASA Team doctor in Berlin.

This potentially sees him in a testing room, not only supervising tests in an investigatory role on behalf of the IAAF but simultaneously observing the test as the sole permitted witness on behalf of the athlete. The potential of conflict of interest is clear, whereas the hat Adams was wearing in the various pre-Berlin meetings is not.

On the face of it Adams would be wearing an IAAF hat when first recommending Caster’s withdrawal as he was presumably reporting on the results initiated at the request of IAAF following the African Junior Championships in Mauritius.

On the assumption that Caster had been informed of the challenges and potential outcomes of her participation, and that she remained adamant that she wanted to run, there is reason to support Chuene’s decision as the correct one to take.

No-one had or could provide a clear result prior to the 800m final.

The gold medal R450,000 prize money and associated incentives alone would have a life changing effect for the 18-year-old and her family.

Only a soothsayer could have predicted the gender testing outcome at that stage and few would want to be faced with the decision to prevent the potential of that opportunity (or even probability given her times).  It would take a brave man to live with the decision of depriving her the gold medal if the outcome of testing is found in Semenya’s favour.

Speculations as to the impact of other reasons and consultations in his decision to overrule Adams will presumably be addressed in the SASCOC investigation.

The process first came off the track as a result of the leaks and then confirmation of gender testing. Arguably the initial media report could and should have been treated, by all, as speculation requiring no confirmation. It was not the first time people had queried the status of female athletes. This is where the media frenzy began and the mishandling of the case commenced.

ASA’s apology will hopefully be the first of many from politicians, individuals and organisations at national and international level.

The subsequent release of alleged results is appalling, both for the content and because the author and the sources must have known the impact this would have on an innocent person. It is Ironic, if not scandalous, that the sources, who must have broken ethics, rules, or even laws, to release this information, presumably for financial gain, have been protected by anonymity  whilst a innocent athlete who may happen to be generically different is publically pilloried.

These two leaks are as central to the mismanagement of the case as the incompetence displayed by various stakeholders, but can only be investigated at an international level.

The Semenya case will however change gender testing forever.
Given the ill-defined nature of the testing and conclusions it seems probable that athletes previously thought to have an advantage have been compromised out of the sport by the fear of breach of confidentiality. It is highly unlikely that any athlete is going to take the international federation to court to argue a case against gender advantage where their most personal details are going to be made public. Thus confidentiality becomes the leverage to implement the guidelines.

In this regard ASA and Leonard Chuene’s persistent denial on the grounds of protecting the athlete is understandable. If IAAF had maintained a similar stance from the outset some semblance of confidentiality may have been sustainable. However an apparent failure to share the full details of the case with ministry and SASCOC is a remarkable oversight.

As confidentiality is now in tatters in the Semenya case, there is no leverage to be applied and this can only work in Caster’s favour should she wish to pursue her athletics or sporting career.
Any attempt to provide a negative outcome is almost certainly destined for the Court of Arbitration.

The outcome to be announced in Monaco will hopefully focus on the way forward and how to address future cases. The essential foundation to that work is an all inclusive international level investigation of the process and handling of the Semenya case.

While the SACOC investigation and the’s initial report can provide a basis for analysis of the South African involvement, it is necessary to have the case evaluated in a holistic fashion which can only happen at international level.

This needs to encompass everything from ‘why questions were not being raised at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, the processes followed, the roles played by team management and media liaison both at SA team and IAAF level, media ethics of such cases, (where cheating and crime is not an issue), the time scales for results, and many other aspects.

There can be little question that such investigation will lead to a much more thorough appraisal of sport, and this surely can only be for the good of athletics.

In recent weeks South African sport has been rocked to the core by a lack of responsibility from those entrusted with the various sporting codes.

All of this came to a head with the Caster Semenya saga where Athletics South Africa boss Leonard Chuene admitted to having lied to protect the athlete.

I may understand that the end result was a noble idea however it did not require Chuene to breakaway from the principals and morals that should be the foundation of the operating of any organisation.

What incensed me even more was the fact that the rest of our athletics fraternity chose to keep Chuene as the boss even after Chuene admitted to his shortcomings. The honourable thing to do for Chuene was to resign or take a leave of absence from his post until this entire Semenya saga is concluded.

What this sends out to the rest of South Africa and the world is that we can do wrong as long as it is a means to a positive result.

Unfortunately, the result of Chuene’s lies did not only mislead the nation but it also embarrassed our government who were already waging war on the IAAF for all the information about Semenya’s gender and the unlawful gender testing conducted on our golden girl.

What was even more disheartening is that politicians and other organs of government who were so quick to pull out the race card and play the blame game on the IAAF, Australian and South African media didn’t even condemn Chuene for his misleading allegations and statements at the start of this entire saga.

Only one member of the hierarchy at ASA has resigned over this matter while everyone else is washing their hands off the matter while passing on the buck to someone else. When are the real perpetrators of this mess going to own up to their mistakes and do the right thing and step down?

It is not our athletes’ inability to perform at major international events that should be interrogated but rather the competence of our administrators.

This also played itself out during the ICC Champions Trophy when the Proteas, again, crashed out of a major ICC tournament.

It is time that heads roll, whether it is the coach, Mickey Arthur, captain Graeme Smith, or some of the older members of the Proteas team. Drastic action needs to be taken to get this monkey off our back and no change in approach or bringing in a sport psychologist will help this team.

We need to rid it of the baggage that keeps us from becoming the best cricket team on the field instead of on some paper with points collected called the ICC rankings.

As much as CSA chief executive Gerald Majola has done extremely well in swelling the coffers of the CSA and ensuring that South Africa is the number one cricketing destination for all tournaments, as a leader he will have to make some hard and unpopular decisions as much as he has made decisions in the past that have pleased everyone.

Even our cash strapped hockey association has lost it’s major sponsor and there was nothing visibly being done by the administrators of hockey to pull in more sponsorship while they still had their cash cow in the retail store.

To me that smacks of bad administration and the broom needs to be brought in for fresh and innovative ideas that will attract sponsorship instead of chase it away.

The less about soccer maybe the better. As hosts of the Fifa World Cup next year, our national team should be battling with some of the top nations in t he world and bringing some good results home.

What we have seen over the past few months post Confederations Cup is plenty of individual battles at Safa and it all came to a head at the recent AGM which is now not being recognised by a few of Safa’s regions because their man wasn’t handed the presidency of the organisation.

The voting system looked fair from the outside and the result was also recognised by Fifa and a few other high powered entities.

I’m not surprised that in the midst of the grab for positions of power in the mother organisation our national team has slipped even further on the Fifa rankings which has also been aided by their appalling results on the field of play.

Lack of accountability comes in here where our national team coach Joel Santana has been given a stay of execution after managing to steer the team to one victory in nine matches with the other all seeing South Africa on the losing end.

Santana is defiant that he won’t go, the captain Aaron Mokuena is also staging a sit-in as the leader of the pack while he cannot cite reasons why the team is failing the nation and our administrators have still done nothing about the fact that Bafana Bafana are still the only national team that does not have the official emblem the King Protea on the left hand side of the jersey.

All of this is due to administrative bungling and a lack of accountability and taking responsibility for their actions.

Is there an end to this?

I don’t see it as long as the same faces are in the same seats of our sporting organisations.

The images could hardly have been further removed.

In Rio the Olympic carnival is seemingly already under way after International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge awarded the 2016 Games to the Brazilian city on Friday.

The jubilant South American street-party scenes were beamed around the globe as a nation celebrated, even though there’s a lengthy seven-year struggle ahead.

Meanwhile here in Africa a day later and the “party” was turning ugly.

Led by former Olympic and Commonwealth sprinter, Geraldine Pillay, a cross-section of the nation’s athletics stars from both genders and all races, were meeting to try and address some of the myriad problems the sport finds itself in.

This after Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene admitted lying in the Caster Semenya gender controversy and major sponsor Nedbank terminated its lucrative contract early.

According to media reports though the meeting was ‘hijacked’ by uninvited ‘athletes’ , led by still joint national 400-metre record-holder Hendrik Mokganyetsi. Before the meeting it was said that no ASA board members would be welcome but Mokganyetsi was allowed in because he was a former athlete. As the meeting turned into a shambles he left.

It’s only understandable that South African sport in general has had up and downs since the re-admission to the global sporting fold in the early 90s.

Rugby has had ongoing troubles (think former coach Andre Markgraaff’s alleged racial slurs, the Geo Cronje furore over refusing to share a room with a team-mate of colour, the infamous Kamp Staaldraad). Cricket has had the scandalous Hansie Cronje matchfixing furore). The national soccer side find themselves languishing in mediocrity on the world rankings and the recent SAFA elections were also a charade.

But it’s hard to remember a time when SA athletics was in such disarray.

Coverage of this mockery of a meeting in Pretoria on Saturday made the front page lead story in national Sunday paper Rapport and disgraceful scenes of finger-pointing and shouting that went on as the meeting degenerated into mayhem were screened around the country by e.tv.

In the digital era, the world is a small place and there can be no doubt that the international sports leaders are watching with more than a little concern.

This sort of thing does our athletics in particular and sport in general no favours at all. If the athletes have their grievances they deserve a platform for themselves to be heard in a respectful manner. If they honestly thought everything was rosy then why would they have called the meeting. The general impression is that athletics is dying in South Africa. The athletes want to save it.

And it doesn’t make things any easier that Mokganyetsi is a member of the SASCOC Athletes’ Commission, a forum for athletes to allow themselves to be heard and a go-between for athletes, federations and SASCOC.

Saturday’s events do not exactly inspire confidence that current athletes are having any say in the running of their sport. Nor does it inspire prospective athletics stars to aspire to greatness.

Swimmer Roland Schoeman was once offered millions to represent Qatar on the world stage. He turned it down but one wonders if SA sport continues on its current course, athletes from other codes will be forced down that drastic road.

The IAAF World Track and Field Championships opened in Berlin, Germany a month ago on August 15.

Two names have hogged the headlines since then.

One was all too predictable in the flying form of Jamaican ‘phenom’ Usain Bolt, and his popularity levels have reached stratospheric proportions.

The other too, could have been predicted after the phenomenal form shown in her build-up to the championship.

Sadly the 2009 800m world champion Caster Semenya’s name has not been in the limelight but rather under the harsh spotlight of the world since the questionmark surrounding her gender.

A month down the line and the casters under this bizarre bandwagon, some would say express train, that follows her every move, do nothing but gather speed!

One wonders just where this train’s final destination is going to be as more and more passengers, baggage-handlers, conductors and freeloaders leap on.

As the scenario unfolds, what will be the outcome?

The world athletics governing body, the IAAF are understandably playing their cards close to their chest and have said that only in November will all the facts be finalised and an announcement made.

Until then it’s a question of speculation and sparring as bucks get passed, fingers get pointed, allegations are hurled, denials are made. It’s turned into nothing but an Olympic-sized squabbling match!

The IAAF are right to stay mum on the matter now. Let the official investigation run its course. They of all people are all too aware that this issue should never have been allowed to sink this low. Calm heads and calculated thinking are what is needed.

Certainly not the way the whole affair has been hijacked into an ‘us against them’ scenario by the fly-by-night publicity-seeking politicians, and even suggestions of ‘global warfare’ with news that the South African government wants the United Nations to investigate whether Semenya was treated in line with its protocols on gender and equality.

All good and well but all the while Caster Semenya sits squarely in the middle. One can only shudder at how she must be processing the horror that rages around her and whether she is going to emerge with her sanity intact.

Life DOES go on around her though. At the weekend she was going to turn out in public and run the 4km event at the national cross-country championships in Tshwane – her first race since Berlin – but was withdrawn at the last minute when the latest gender allegations surfaced.

Sadly Athletics South Africa is so deep in bunkered-down protection mode that on Tuesday morning there was no evidence on the organisation’s official website that the championships had even been run. A sad state of affairs indeed for those athletes who ran off with the honours.

For the record, Sibusiso Nzima and Tebogo Mashela won the men’s 12km and women’s 8km races respectively. Even they are victims of the ever-widening fallout.

If an emergency evacuation situation, which would Cameron van der Burgh choose to save and take with him? His favourite dish of sushi or the e-mail print-out of his endurance-based training programme drawn up by his mentor, Japanese breaststroke coaching legend Norimasa Hirai?

“I love eating sushi, but I’d have to save the training programme as it has changed my life,” said Van der Burgh, whose world record in the 50 metres breaststroke (26.67sec) and bronze in the 100m breaststroke (59.95) made him the talk of the recent FINA World Championships held in Rome, Italy.

Van der Burgh will be the first to state that SA swim stars are riding the crest of a wave and sponsors who don’t see the light at the end of this sports tunnel, will be kicking themselves for not throwing their financial muscle behind this sport which is yet again likely to be looked at to deliver for Team SA at the 2012 Olympics in London.

All in all Rome was a good outing for the South Africans, and apart from Van der Burgh – whose looks are so often mistaken for those of SA Proteas cricket captain Graeme Smith –  Gerhard Zandberg (bronze in the 50 metres backstroke), George du Rand (200m backstroke), Sebastien Rousseau (200m butterfly), Lyndon Ferns (100m freestyle), Jean Basson (200m freestyle), Wendy Trott (800 and 1500m freestyle) and the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle and 4 x 200m freestyle relay teams, all made it to the finals of their events.

Let not forget the superb bronze medal performance of 19-year-old Durbanite Chad Ho in the 5km open water swim competition in Ostia, which got the SA campaign off to a good start.

The find of the championships for SA swimming was undoubtedly University of California pre-medical student Graeme Moore, whose 50m freestyle semi-final effort of 21.72 (down from his previous best of 22.49) saw him end 11th overall at his first major international senior swim event in SA colours.

Roland Schoeman, who went to Rome as the defending champion in the 50m butterfly, will be the first to sum up his world championship campaign in one word – disappointing. For the first time since 2005, the ‘Big R’ returned home without a medal, after failing to make the 50 metres butterfly semi-finals and ending 15th out of 16 sprinters in the 50m freestyle semi-finals.

Yet seven days later at the Telkom SA Short Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg, Schoeman set a world mark of 20.30 in the 50m freestyle heats. Others who faded out of the reckoning in the heat of Rome, but oozed confidence and speed in Pietermaritzburg included Darian Townsend (1:42.97 in the 200m freestyle) and Riaan Schoeman (4:08.97 in the 400m individual medley).

They will all be looking forward to the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup in Durban in October, with several of the swimmers out to cash in on the lucrative 25m series on other continents before the year is out. Then it’s on to a hearty Festive Season of turkey and more before resuming training ahead of the Commonwealth Games trials – at the Telkom SA National Championships in Durban in April.

Back to Rome and one Sebastien Rousseau. Clocking  an African record of 1min 54.51sec in the heats is unheard of from an 18-year-old and one can only imagine how much of an asset to SA swimming the quiet man from Cape Town can be if his talent is properly nurtured and when his body has developed to full strength at the 22 to 24 years of age mark – as its predominantly swimmers in   this age group that he was up against in Rome.

Van der Burgh’s bettering of his short course world bests in Pietermaritzburg in the 50 metres breaststroke (25.43) and 100m breaststroke, where with a time of 55.99 he becam the first swimmer ever to break the 56sec barrier, once again put him into the headlines.

Expect even more from the Tshwane blitz when US$10 000 for a world record is up for grabs during the World Cup series.