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Olympic Special (Part 3)
| Date: |
08 August 2004 12:00 |
| Show: | Carte Blanche |
Ruda: 'Welcome back to Athens, where South Africa's athletes arrived on Wednesday morning.
Although they were tired from a long flight, three of our Olympic hopefuls met us to take in some of the ancient and modern sights in Athens. Geraldine Pillay from Macassar in the Cape is one of South Africa's top sprinters. She won gold in the relay at the 2002 African Athletic Championships in Tunisia and in July this year in Brazzaville she won the 400 metre hurdles and the 200 metre sprint. She will be competing at the Olympics in the 100 metres.
Geraldine Pillay (Athlete): 'I'm so excited. For me it's still unreal you know. I'm still here trying to digest everything; you know, that I am here in Athens where it all started. So for me it is a special event because this is my first Olympics and it's a special place because this is where the whole theme of the Olympics started.'
Bongani Mahlangu grew up in Boipatong. He qualified for the Olympics by winning silver at the All Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria, in the 60 kilogram lightweight [boxing] division.'
Bongani Mahlango (boxer): 'When I was home I said I couldn't believe I was going there, till I arrived here and everything began to start. So I'm just quite happy.'
Susan Webber is the captain of the South African women's hockey team [who] have been doing very well in recent years. They won bronze in the K.T. Cup in Korea last year and a gold in Athens at the pre-Olympics in May this year.
Susan Webber (hockey player): 'I was fortunate enough to be at Sydney and those Games were fantastic. But this brings something different because it's where it all started and there's that history and a different culture that is very exciting.'
Ruda: 'So what's your ultimate hope?'
Susan: 'One of our top goals is to be in the top six, which is realistic for us as a team, and it would be a huge achievement for us.'
Bongani: 'If I could win three fights, maybe four fights, I know I will be on the bronze level by the semi-finals, because now my mission is to get to semi-finals. After semi-finals then I can say I'm going for gold or silver. It's better to start somewhere where you're starting.'
Geraldine: 'My goal for Athens 2004 is to make the final in the 100 metres, because it's going to be the first South African ever to run in a sprint final at an Olympic Games and it would mean a whole deal for myself and the country and all the aspiring athletes that are at home thinking to themselves, 'Oh we can never do this'. I want to set a standard so three years from now they can say, 'Geraldine did this, we can do this'.'
It's always difficult to have a career and be a top athlete. Three years ago Geraldine decided to quit her job in I.T. and work as an au pair in America while training more intensely.
Geraldine: 'When I was a programmer I would miss athletics - because it is my passion. I didn't enjoy programming and I said to myself, 'Well I have the background. I can always come back to this industry, so let me just give this a try for X amount of years and see how it goes'. And when I look back I don't regret quitting my job.'
Bongani Mahlangu is one of three boxers representing South Africa, but he seems to be a contradiction in terms; he's a Rastafarian boxer.'
Ruda: 'So how do you bring those two things together? Being a Rastafarian and being a fighter.'
Bongani: 'Boxing is not about fighting. You take it as a sport, just to go and play; after that, we hug each other, we shake hands. We can still be peaceful but just go and play. It might be a rough, but it's still just a sport.'
One hundred and twenty six sports men and women were chosen to make up the South African team, but still there was some dissatisfaction surrounding the selection.
Ruda: 'How did you feell? - when Sam Ramsamy said, 'This team is too white'.''
Geraldine: 'At the time when I read the article in the paper I couldn't really understand where he was coming from, but I could understand when he explained himself why he made a statement like that. Because we need to do something about developing in South Africa and he said, 'Development doesn't mean black, coloured or Indian'. It is ... we have to start at grass roots level, so once an athlete reaches the age of 18 or whatever we will have a more geographically balanced team South Africa.''
Here at the Olympic Village the South African team have settled into accommodation that boasts every modern convenience.
Susan: 'I fortunately can compare it to something like Sydney and, as everyone said, those Games were fantastic. And everyone has been concerned about Greece not being finished; and I must say the Village is fantastic. The accommodation is superb, it's very comfortable, spacious enough and it's going to be really fun living there for the next three weeks. I think the most exciting thing is this little tag that we can put in a vending machine and out comes your water or cool drink or juice, whatever you require. And those vending machines are all over, so that's an exciting thing.'
Ruda: 'What does it take to win?'
Bongani: 'To tell yourself you're going to do your thing and to enjoy and to have [a] lion['s] heart.'
Ruda: 'Dreams of the magic discs - bronze, silver, gold. South Africa's best track record in this regard was set in the ring.'
It's probably South Africa's best-kept sporting secret, but our boxers have brought home the most Olympic medals; 18 in all, of which six were gold. In Antwerp in 1920, Clarence Walker won the country's first gold medal in the bantamweight division. Four years later in Paris, Willie Smith took gold in the same division.
Lightweight Laurie Stevens and light heavyweight Dave Carstens took gold in 1932, and it was on the way back from Los Angeles to Cape Town that they demonstrated the ultimate Olympic spirit towards team-mate, bronze medallist Jenny Maakal.
Lappe: 'Her team mates could see she was not happy and they said, 'What's wrong with you, I mean you did wonderfully well, what's wrong?' and she said, 'Look, I don't think it was really worth it. My mother had to take a bond and we're going to lose our house.' And the two boxers, Dave Carstens and Laurie Stevens, they had both at that stage contracts, - professional contracts - and they could start boxing for money. But they said, 'We're not going to do that. We're going to have tournaments and all of that money will be for you to give to your mother until she's paid her bond back.''
In London in 1948 South Africa again scored double gold. Gerald Dreyer won in the lightweight division, as did his team-mate, George Hunter, fighting as a light heavyweight. Heavyweight Daan Bekker made it two in a row, winning bronze in Melbourne and silver in Rome.
Ruda: 'Hosting the Olympics is a dream and a nightmare for any city and Athens, having lost it to Atlanta in 1996, had something to prove.'
They say that Athens has gone from the 17th century to the 21st century in just six months. It was a city plagued by pollution and heavy traffic, stray dogs and too-full parks. Now it can rival any main centre in Europe after a makeover that included planting 14 000 trees and 650 000 flowers.
'I'm a born optimist, but most of Greeks know the Greeks are able to deliver, mainly under pressure, and we were under a lot of pressure.
Mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyannis, had to oversee a process that was plagued by problems and delays.
Dora Bakoyannis (Mayor of Athens): 'We had a lot of negative press around the world making people believe that we wouldn't manage. There was a certain arrogance - you know, looking down at us because they believed we are small and incapable.'
Six months ago the picture was not rosy. Construction on several stadia was behind schedule and the roads were as clogged as they had been for the past few decades. Delays in construction have pushed up the costs and hosting the Olympics may end up costing Athens close to ten billion euros.
Dora: 'As far as the city is concerned our infrastructure that we did cost 150 million euros, but everything we did was for Athens, not just for the Games; new roads, new pavements, new pathways, but all that is something the Athenians will have the next day.'
South African expatriate Keith Foster has a home that overlooks the main athletics stadium.
Ruda: 'What have you seen happening here over the last year or so?'
Keith Foster (Athens resident): 'It's been very exciting to see the developments. The stadium was obviously already here, but has been reworked. There's been a huge flurry of activity; lots of people clambering on the roof to get it finished in time. But it looks ready.'
Ruda: 'When did they finish?'
Keith: 'A few weeks back was basically the last time I saw people clambering around on the roof, but I believe they're still doing finishing touches.'
Mr Yiannis Evangelou of the Hellenic Association for Tour and Travel Agencies says that the improvements to the city have well been worth the wait.
Yiannis Evangelou (President, H.A.T.T.A.): 'Our life has become easier. No one would think we could drive from the stadium to the airport in maximum 20 minutes.'
Ruda: 'How long did it used to take?'
Yiannis: 'Even two hours.'
Congestion has been eased by a three-lane ring road, a tram system and an underground Metro; this has also improved the city's legendary pollution. Despite this, tourism is reported as being down considerably when compared with the same time last year. Foreign tour operators are being forced to sell their Olympic package deals at lower than cost and they say people are concerned, not only with hurried preparations, but also higher prices in Athens.
Dora: 'It was too expensive and now in the centre of Athens we have 20 percent down in the prices. We understood that we invest, that the people that visit Athens need to go away - as ambassadors, need to fall in love with Athens. And we're trying by having big campaigns explaining we have to have a record in quality but not in prices. And I believe we will have this record in quality.'
But according to the Hellenic Tourism Association, Greece is no longer targeting the mass tourism market but international travellers who are willing to pay for quality.
Yiannis: 'Greece, as a member of the European Union and the euro system, is not in a position to provide cheap packages any more, but quality.'
Dora: 'I believe that we are making an investment for tourism because Greece is now in [the] frontline of the international media interest. People will have the possibility to see on their screen how this country and this city looks. All the hotels in Athens, from the smallest to the biggest, have come up to Olympic standards. The problems which the city had - pollution, traffic, etc. - practically changed. So I believe we will have an increase in tourism in the years to come.'
With less than a week to go, Athenians are putting finishing touches on what promises to be one of the greatest spectacles in Olympic history: the return of the Olympics to their place of birth.
Dora: 'There is a new start for Greece and I think that if you would say something about the Olympic Games [it] is they symbolise the merging of the new Greece and, with another, self esteem also for the country.'
Ruda: 'And, on my first visit, I can tell you it is a magical city. When we come back we look at South Africa's golden girls and at the country's hopes for this year.'
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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