Just 12 years later things are looking vastly different for Amos. Fallen from grace after a positive dope test that resulted in a three-year ban, the now 30-year-old has moved back to his village of Marobela and even considered selling his Olympic medal to make ends meet.

But his blazing desire for success has not diminished and the middle-distance star is determined to find redemption at the end of this tough road he’s travelled.

Amos was just 18 years old when he won that Olympic silver in London. He then went on to beat Rudisha to claim Commonwealth Games gold in 2014 and although multiple injuries kept him from winning more major global medals, he was a regular victor on the Diamond League circuit. 

By 2021 he ran a world-leading time of 1:42.91 in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics. There, disaster struck when he collided with American Isaiah Jewett in his semifinal and although he was allowed to run the final, Amos had injured his quad muscle in the fall and finished a distant eighth. Hopes were high he’d soon be back to his best, though.

But everything changed for Amos in July 2022 just as he was planning to head to the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, his training base at the time.

“The staff from the doping organisation arrived at my house as I was getting ready to leave for the games village to deliver the news. In retrospect, I’m glad I was spared the humiliation of having to leave the games village, but it was still devastating to hear,” said Amos, who has decided to open up about the trials of the last few years.

“It was the worst news I had ever received in my entire career, and I was at a loss for words about what, why, or even how something like this could have happened to me. 

“I had put in so much work and effort in preparing for the World Championships which were held in Eugene — a place I called home — and being robbed of the opportunity to run in my ‘hometown’ was heartbreaking.” 

Amos had tested positive for metabolites of GW1516, a prohibited substance that modifies how the body metabolises fat that was “originally synthesised and evaluated for the treatment of obesity, diabetes and other disorders caused by metabolic problems but is now not approved for human use”, according to the Athletics Integrity Unit.

The urine sample that tested positive was provided during an out-of-competition test on 4 June 2022 in Rabat, Morocco.

“After learning, I kept a close eye on everything I ate, did, and came into contact with, but I still don’t understand how the substance entered my sample. I even went so far as to test every supplement I took, and all of the results were negative. The most bizarre thing was that I was tested in Ostrava and the results were still negative. I then had testing in Rabat five days later, and the results were positive. The entire experience seemed so odd, and as I mentioned earlier, it still makes no sense.”

Amos eventually signed an admission of anti-doping rule violations to reduce his ban by a year, but remains adamant he did nothing wrong.

“The entire process was financially, emotionally and spiritually draining. I battled for nearly two years until my resources and energy ran out, leaving me with no other choice than to make the admission.”

Initially breaking the news to his family was the tough part for Amos.

“They know who I am and the principles I uphold, so having to explain how this happened was shocking and confusing to them. It was difficult for them to comprehend how something like this could have happened.

“Nevertheless, their love and support kept me going and they stood by me through that trying time, and for that, I am sincerely grateful,” he said.

Despite the disappointment, Amos set his mind on maintaining his training. He will be allowed to return to international competition on 11 July 2025 and has big plans.

“The goal is to stage the greatest comeback the world has ever witnessed and earn a spot in the September 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.

“I always have to remind myself that I still have a lot to give and that my story isn’t over, even on the difficult days when it’s hard to find the drive to get up and show up. Watching the performance of the upcoming athletes also inspires me and motivates me to train even harder.”

As for whether he can return to the heights of 2012, when he ran a lifetime best of 1:41.73 for that Olympic silver, Amos remains confident.

“‘As a man thinketh so is he.’ I therefore do think I could run 1:41 once more. My current training indicates that I can and breaking into the sub-1:41 club would be an incredible dream come true. Who knows? Maybe I could even break the world record while I’m at it. I’ve changed a lot over the years; I’m now much more grounded, mature, and will approach situations very differently.”

For now though, Amos will need to watch his compatriots looking to add to the nation’s Olympic medal haul in Paris from a distance. Heading the charge is young sprint sensation Letsile Tebogo, who claimed silver and bronze at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

“If there is one thing Botswana does best it’s to unearth the greatest talents the world has ever seen and Letsile Tebogo is evidence of that,” he said. 

“It started with Glody Dube, who was the first Motswana to run in the Olympics, then my era came and I brought the first individual Olympic medal and now in this generation, we have the world record-breaking athlete Letsile Tebogo. He is also inspiring the next generation of athletes to do so much more.” 

While Amos is backing the Botswana team all the way, he’ll also be continuing his countdown to this time next year when he believes he’ll fulfil his ultimate destiny.

“A person’s name has great significance in my culture. I was named Nijel by my parents, which means champion, and that has manifested in a lot of different ways in my life,” he explained.

“I remain the greatest, I will always be a champion, and my name will leave an indelible mark on history for future generations.”

It’s been a tough few years in general for the 30-year-old swimmer who, by the age of 21, had risen to the pinnacle of his sport. He’d earned Olympic gold by beating the greatest of all time, Michael Phelps. A few days later, he’d added a silver medal to his haul at London 2012. He was on top of the sporting world and with his charming smile and endearing manner, Le Clos was being hailed as South Africa’s golden boy.

He loved it. The type of swimmer who thrives in the limelight, the adulation spurred him on to two more Olympic silvers four years later, four world titles in the long-course pool (50m) and 10 in the short course (25m).

But with the mental stress he was under last year, that bubble burst. Le Clos walked away from the Olympic Games in Tokyo empty-handed. He finished fifth in the 200m butterfly final and didn’t even make it out of the heats in the 100m butterfly. In his place it was Tatjana Schoenmaker who was hailed as the Olympic hero having claimed gold and silver in the 200m and 100m breaststroke respectively.

“It was rough. It wasn’t necessarily about them talking about Tatjana because I was happy for her. It was more myself. Deep down we knew we couldn’t win. The preparation, mental stresses that I had… People thought I was playing games or bluffing,” says Le Clos.

“I couldn’t believe I didn’t make the final. I was devastated, I was almost in tears after that race. I just felt like I let everyone down because we had worked so hard for that.”

A shell of his former self

His close-knit family are devoted to him, he says, and would never feel let down. But several of Le Clos’ sponsors – vital in a sport with no government or federation funding – reduced their support after the Games. It wasn’t the money that concerned him, however. “It’s tough because you lose everything, you lose your way.”

“Tatjana became a superstar – and rightfully so – I’m not upset about that at all, and Matthew [Sates] won the World Cup and I’m over the moon for them. It’s not about them at all, it’s about me and who I am as a person and not having that and being so low after that.”

Ahead of the Olympics, Le Clos thought he could power through the mental turmoil of what had happened in January. “It’s something I’ll never talk about because it’s not for anybody else to know. But it was something so deep, it was worse than my parents having cancer and this was worse for them.

“It really cut me deep but I didn’t know it affected me. Sometimes you don’t know that you’re swimming with that weight on your shoulders. I wasn’t myself. I was so unsure about myself. I lost all my confidence last year.”

Le Clos’ father Bert encouraged him to talk to a sports psychologist after it happened but he refused. “I’ve always prided myself in being a head-strong guy, I’m the man, but I needed someone last year.

“There are only about five people in the world that know, but it was really deep. I didn’t want to talk about it because I thought it would affect me – it was too close to the Olympics. I thought I’m just going to power through this and I’ll be ok. You’re training well and then you get to a meet and all those wobbles get to you.”

It was only after the Olympics that Le Clos sought the help he needed. He went through intense eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy to work through his traumatic experience. “I only started to speak to someone after the Olympics – biggest mistake of my life – and I started getting myself right again. I was in a dark place, even after the Olympics. I was super depressed. 

“There were times where I was sitting in my room just crying by myself. I didn’t know why I was like that. It genuinely wasn’t about the Olympics. It was about my future and about me… it felt like I had fallen such a long way from where I was in terms of who I was as a person. It really wasn’t about swimming.

“I did some deep therapy last year. I’m okay to talk about it now because I’m actually good. I’m 100% good now compared to last year. Last year I couldn’t talk about anything because I was just a shell of myself.”

On the up

Le Clos is now well on the road to recovery and it’s showing in the pool. At the recent SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha, he swam World Championship and Commonwealth Games qualifying times in the 100m and 200m butterfly, and claimed the national title in the 50m butterfly.

“The main thing is that I’m good, everyone is good, I’m on my way back. I’m doing the right things… I still believe I’ve got a lot of fight left in me. I’ve had a great career, but I don’t think I’m done by any means.”

His main goal now is to become the most decorated athlete in Commonwealth Games history. To surpass the current record holder, Australian shooter Phillip Adams, who has 18 medals, Le Clos needs to win two more.

“That’s a big goal of mine. I’m focusing very heavily on that. We’ve got the world champs before which will obviously be very important, but the Commonwealths is definitely my main focus for this year,” he said. “Hopefully we can get a couple of relays through and pick up a few medals there but I’m hoping to smash that record come July.”

There are also the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Back to his confident self, the swimmer is quick to claim, “I know I’m winning medals in two years’ time, I can promise you that. So I’m not worried about the future.”

This article was first published by New Frame.

For Amos, who went into the Games with the fastest 800m time in the world this year, the global response was an unexpected one.

“I was surprised about how it moved the world,” he admitted afterwards. “For us, it was just normal support one would get in our situation, there for each other. The emotions we felt connected us just as the Olympic motto says: ‘United by Emotion’.”

Despite the amicable scenes, Amos was devastated after the fall.

“In that second so many voices played in my head – ‘this is your Olympic dream ending’ being the loudest. But I just had to face reality head-on at that moment. That’s just how racing is, especially in the 800m, so many mishaps can happen.”

What Amos did not realise at that moment was that another surprise was in store as officials decided he had been impeded on the track and should be reinstated in the final, which then comprised nine runners instead of the usual eight.

Speaking afterwards, he said: “God came through for me. I had made peace about what happened when I walked out of that stadium. To find out that night I was in the finals, I experienced God’s hand in action. We didn’t have to protest, the referees just placed me in. It was just sad I wasn’t in the situation to be at my best in that final.”

Deep down Amos already knew a medal was unlikely. He had injured his quad muscle in the fall and, as he put it, was effectively running on one leg.

“It’s quite a serious injury. If it wasn’t the Olympics I wouldn’t have raced that final. I did it through so much pain banking on an adrenaline rush to mask it, but it didn’t work that way.”

He eventually finished in eighth place in a disappointing 1:46.41 – well off the 1:42.91 he ran in Monaco just a month before the Games.

“My season was cut short because of that injury, so it’s back to the drawing board with rehab and strengthening.” 

Rising from ill luck

Looking back over the 27 years of his life, the gutsy Amos is well accustomed to prevailing through adversity. He has no memories of either of his parents.

“My mum died when I was very young and I never met my father. I don’t have any memories of them at all. It’s kind of like they never existed. My grandmother raised me together with nine other children – my cousins and siblings – in a small village of Marobela. I was a typical farm boy spending the whole day looking after cattle.”

Running soon became his way out. He had no shoes in which to train and no particular interest in athletics, but his teachers persevered. They could see the talent and convinced the young Amos his future lay on the track.

“I was a soccer player, a striker with good speed. So, when I was out playing one of the games in junior school, the track coach of the senior school saw me. When I got to senior school he was always nagging me every time I met him in the corridors: ‘Please join my track team.’ So one day I decided to show up just to show him how bad I was, so he would leave me alone. Little did I know that my path would progress to being one of the world’s best,” he said.

“Mr Mafefe became more like a father to me as I was in boarding school, and we got some work done.”

It didn’t take long for that work to pay off and for Amos to excel on the global stage, claiming the world junior title in championship record time in July 2012, and then heading to the London Olympics just a few weeks later at the age of 18.

The 800m final in London was a race that would go down in history – not only for the incredible Kenyan David Rudisha’s world-record-breaking effort in taking gold, but also for no less than six personal bests set by the rest of the field. It would also produce Botswana’s first-ever Olympic medal of any kind as the young Amos powered to silver in a sensationally quick 1:41.73 to set a new world junior record. It is still the fastest he has ever run the 800m.

“I was just a free kid running without any scars in my mind of thinking too much or any kind of negative thoughts. I think that was my power,” he said.

Since that incredible day, Amos has struggled with injuries and other setbacks, but never to the point of quitting. He is yet to win a medal at the World Championships. He did, however, famously defeat the great Rudisha to claim Commonwealth Games gold in 2014.

“I’m now a different athlete. I’ve got scars in my mind that I have to get through before every start line,” he said of his struggles since 2012.

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, the runner was eliminated in the first round after finishing seventh in his heat, a performance that prompted a move to Eugene, Oregon, in the United States.

“After the 2016 Olympic Games, when I got knocked out in the first round, I needed a change of environment,” he said.

Improved times, no medal

“The team here [in Oregon] really helped me be healthy again, which was the main priority of my programme in the first years with the team. We were controlling what we could and got it right, running 1:41:89 in Monaco [in 2019] – the fastest time in the world since the historic 800m race where I won my country’s first Olympic medal.

“I then headed into this Olympics with the fastest time in the world this year after overcoming some challenges that resulted in me racing only one competitive race ahead of the Games.”

That was the 1:42.91 he ran in Monaco in July.

It was – and still is – the quickest time run this year and boded well for earning a second Olympic medal for Botswana. But then came that fateful fall. The second medal earned for his unheralded country would eventually come from their 4x400m relay team instead – a bronze in an African record time of 2:57.27.

“Big motivation came from that. We are all one family so a win for our own is for all of us,” he said of the relay medal for Isaac Makwala, Baboloki Thebe, Zibane Ngozi and Bayapo Ndori.

“More especially for my brother Isaac, I was praying he would get that medal. He has been in this sport for years and showed resilience and the class he is in, so he deserved to walk out of his last Olympic Games with a medal.

“We are one of the most talented nations I know. One would think we have a great system in place for scouting and developing, but no. All these runners you see are athletes who go super-extreme extra steps to be visible and get the opportunity. Hopefully, in the future, we will have a much better system in place that can see even more athletes delivering to their best potential.”

The future and other interests

From a personal perspective, the quest continues to the next Olympics in Paris, three years from now. Before then, there’s a World Championships on his “home” turf in Oregon next July.

In the meantime, he’s been working on his golf swing as he recovers from that quad injury – a new pursuit since his previous hobby of DJing has been put on hold after the Covid pandemic hit.

“You won’t regret having me as DJ,” he quipped. “Got a touch of mood-spinning song selection. But since the pandemic started, I picked up golf and now I find myself spending more time playing it than any other hobby.”

There’s also the release of a documentary on his remarkable life to look forward to.

“I decided to take people behind the scenes to share with them my story, with the hope to inspire. This will be a documentary about my journey as a pro athlete and where I come from,” he said.

The release date has yet to be confirmed, but an enticing preview clip shows his beloved grandmother, Gakenaope, talking about Amos and how she fed him melons as a young boy.

He gets emotional when describing the woman who raised him.

“Man, that lady, she is the strongest person I know. She is motivated and full of life despite losing her seven children and her husband and being left to raise nine grandchildren. Each day she is like sunshine, living and giving gratitude.”

Like so many of the continent’s greatest athletes, it is the desire to look after his own family that has kept Amos going through all the injury and adversity.

“Being able to take care of my family is the biggest motivation, and striving to be a better athlete and, more importantly, a better human being through the platform of sport,” he said.

“I’m sad for what happened in Tokyo, but grateful. I know why I didn’t get the results I wanted. So, going forward, I know what to work on to be able to attain that.

“The gratitude level is more than the disappointment. I’m grateful I got an opportunity to line up at my third Olympic Games and got to share something more than the sport in the process – humility and humanity. I’m even more motivated [and] looking forward to Paris.”

This article was first published on New Frame

Roll on to 2017 and it’s a wildly different scenario. The attention of the athletics world has shifted to the bottom end of Africa, which suddenly seems to be producing some of the most exciting prospects in track and field. And Usain Bolt seems to have selected Wayde van Niekerk as his successor.

What many are now asking is: Where did this success come from?

By Tuesday night, South Africa were third on the World Championships medal table in London, behind Kenya and the United States, with several more podium chances still to come before Sunday.

In a country that has been plagued by blunders and administrative incompetence, it would be hard to believe that this rapid rise could be attributed to the federation that looks after the sport — Athletics South Africa.

For Jean Verster, the coach behind Olympic champion Caster Semenya, who has claimed 1 500m bronze in London and is a favourite for 800m gold, it has been more of a process than anything else.

“I think the reason we’re doing so well has been a process over the last decade. It’s some coaches and also some universities in general and some clubs that have really invested in coaching,” he said.

“I think it’s almost a case of success breeds success, in the sense some people started doing well and that motivated some other people to almost jump on the bandwagon.”

Success there has certainly been. At last year’s Olympic Games in Rio, South Africa picked up two golds and two silvers just in athletics. And so far in London, Wayde van Niekerk has gold in the 400m, Luvo Manyonga gold in the long jump — an event that had two South Africans on the podium, as Ruswahl Samaai took bronze — and Semenya took bronze in the 1 500m. Still to come, Van Niekerk will be gunning for 200m glory and, of course, Semenya for 800m gold.

For Seef le Roux, the technical leader of Team SA in London, belief plays a huge role in the success achieved so far.

“I think it’s got a lot to do with self-confidence and belief in yourself as an athlete and yourself as a coach. I think that’s the positive spin-off and the guys bouncing positive energy off each other. It started with Simon Magakwe running a sub-10 100m for the first time and then all of a sudden a lot of people started believing, if he can do it, so can we,” Le Roux said.

For sprinter Simbine, who finished fifth in the 100m final, that turning point wasn’t so much Magakwe’s sub-10 but Anaso Jobodwana’s bronze medal at the last World Championships in Beijing.

Simbine told London’s The Telegraph: “After that, it seemed everybody decided, if Anaso can do it, we also can do it. There was a shift in mind-set and self-belief.”

There is a definite positive vibe among the athletes, evidenced by their support for each other on and off the track, and this is spilling over to their results.

Verster maintains that international athletes coming to train in South Africa have also had an effect on the confidence of local athletes.

“There are a few other factors as well. I think one of them is also the fact that South African athletes, because they’re getting exposed to all these top athletes who flock to South Africa to train, and also in lots of cases run in local meetings, our athletes have slowly but surely started realising that those people also just have two legs and two arms.

“The coaches also learn from each other. We learn from international coaches. At the end of the day, I think it’s been a process rather than some instant success.”

That learning process is also something that happens on a regular basis at Pretoria’s High Performance Centre (HPC). As Le Roux pointed out: “I think we have got some good structures — not necessarily in terms of the federation but things like the HPC in Pretoria. They’re doing the right things. Grabbing the right guys at the right time, putting them through good systems and we’re seeing the results of that.

“That’s something we can still improve — we need the same sort of set-up in other parts of the country because the talent pool isn’t necessarily in one city,” he said, also pointing out the impressive level of coaching in the country.

For Manyonga’s coach, Neil Cornelius, the growth has come from a “local is lekker” approach. “One of the things that has changed is that we have stopped relying on outside factors to help with performance and started relying on the support staff-coaches, physios, athletics clubs, the athletes’ representatives, agents, psychologists, etcetera,” he said.

And, according to the young coach, there’s more to come from South African athletics, particularly after the country’s excellent showing in topping the medal table at the recent World Under-18 Championships in Nairobi. Granted, some of the larger nations didn’t make the trip to the Kenyan capital but it was an impressive result nevertheless.

“Talent identification has improved a lot as well,” Cornelius said. “There have been numerous projects to help identify talent in rural areas and pretty much all over South Africa. I have always said that we have some of most talented athletes in the world that just haven’t been discovered yet.

“Our crop of younger athletes coming up and giving amazing results are some of those that have been identified and put into an environment where there is a great support structure, professional coaches, doctors and physios,” he added.

That can surely only produce more positive results in the future.

Because really when it comes down to it, winning an Olympic medal is, most of the time, all about the money.

Britain is of course a prime example – their £264-million investment into Team GB bought them 29 gold medals at these Games and third spot in the world on the medal table. Not bad for a nation who just 16 years ago returned from Atlanta with a solitary gold medal.

Team South Africa may not have quite as many millions at their disposal, but exactly how the cash they do have is spent in the next four years will be critical in terms of what to expect back from Rio in 2016.

The good news for now of course, is that with three golds, two silvers and a bronze in the bag, Olympic sport is once again something to cheer about in South Africa. And the embarrassment of that solitary medal-winning performance in Beijing can finally be forgotten.

While there will be much celebration when Team SA lands in the country on Tuesday morning, president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) Gideon Sam, who predicted a medal haul of 12, has mixed feelings about the team's performance at these Games.

Despite his team returning from London with their largest medal haul since readmission, Sam said he was feeling: "50-50. If you think about it – if it was in business, your investors would have said  'You know you've achieved 50% of what you promised so our investment is not safe in your hands.' But truly speaking the one thing we really have achieved is to do away with the Beijing thoughts. And as far as that is concerned we have done very well."

While some scoffed at his pre-Olympic target, Sam is sticking to his guns. "I don't think 12 was too ambitious because if you look at the medals we left on the park, we could have gone very close to 12," he said, pointing to Sunette Viljoen just missing out on a javelin medal by a matter of centimetres, and the likes of Beijing hero Khotso Mokoena losing out in the long jump, LJ van Zyl in the 400m hurdles, Burry Stander in mountain biking and a few others in the pool.

"I like to be a big dreamer. I don't like to think small. If we in our country think small, we're not going to get there. We have to raise the bar all the time. Because I believe we've got the potential. We mustn't shy away from it," he added.

Sam doesn't only dream though, he already has a plan in place for the next four years

"It's all written down. Done and dusted. We know exactly what we need to do," he said.

"We need to focus now. We have the money but we need to use it better."

Sam outlined a plan, which will see two tiers of sports forming the focus of the 2016 campaign. The first tier includes sports such as swimming, athletics, rowing, cycling and canoeing, while the second tier includes the contact sports.

"I've had discussions with the SANDF (South African National Defence Force). We're going to take wrestling, judo, weightlifting, boxing and taekwondo so we're looking into the details now of how we recruit and let them work from the army," said Sam, who pointed out that the different sports federations do not always use their funding in the most efficient way.

"I'm a little bit worried about just spending money on everybody – we need to be focused … I've told them to stop this thing of taking 20 swimmers to international competitions. You're not going to have 20 swimmers at the Olympics. If you'd taken that money and given it to seven of them, those seven would have delivered those four or five medals that you need and that's what we need to get across to the federations.

"But it's not a case of dictating to the federations, but rather sitting down and working with them to take this thing forward."

Sam said he has already had discussions with rowing coach Roger Barrow, after the men's lightweight four success in London, about setting up a national rowing base in Tzaneen. And he has chatted to the president of the International Hockey Federation, who suggested hosting more international tournaments at under-21 level to raise the standard of the sport in South Africa.

"The plans are all there and together with Minister [Fikile] Mbalula we will look at what kind of funding we will need to put behind this.

"But it must not kick in the last year before Rio, it needs to kick in now. In January we ought to know where we are going. I need to know who we have in the system and how we're going to look after them," he said.

"It's such a beauty to see that some of them that performed in London are still very young and will continue," he added pointing to Lehann Fourie, who reached the final of the 110m hurdles; and the impressively speedy Anaso Jobodwana, who gave Usain Bolt a run for his money in the semifinals before lining up against him once more in the 200m final.

Sam said that the Commonwealth Games in 2014 will provide a further opportunity for the federations to give athletes a chance to perform but then scale down their teams with an eye to Rio two years later.

"We've got a big testing opportunity that we can have in Glasgow in 2014. I would like to take quite a number of athletes to Glasgow. Everyone must know now that there is an opportunity to go to Glasgow and then afterwards the sifting will come for Rio," he said.

While year after year, many a South African sports official has floundered, Sam certainly seems to be a man with a plan, and he's determined to make it work. And thanks to the boost from Cameron, Chad, the rowing boys, Bridgitte and Caster, it can surely only get better from here.

It's of a group of black South Africans watching his 100m breaststroke final, cheering him on with every stroke, and then breaking into wild celebration as he reaches the wall in world record time.

"These guys are watching and you just see the enjoyment. They would probably never watch swimming. You can just see how the whole country was pulled together on this – it's unbelievable. That gives me so much joy and so much delight," says the newly-crowned Olympic champion.

It's only in hindsight, with the gold medal safely in the bag, that the 24-year-old can enjoy news from back home.

"Now to go back and look at it, it's touching. It's so overwhelming. I can't believe what we did for the country," he says.

In the day leading up to the race, though, Van der Burgh had shut himself off from the hopes of an expectant nation.

Time to prioritise
"The last 24 hours, from the semifinal to the final, was the most pressure I've ever felt in my whole life," he says. "It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. After swimming the semifinal and posting such a good time, everybody knows it's yours to lose. All the pressure's on you."

Van der Burgh says that he didn't allow himself to be alone during those last hours.

"I've been working with a sports psychologist for the last six to eight months just for those last crucial 24 hours, because we knew how much pressure I'd be under and we've been trying to focus with how to deal with it," says Van der Burgh, who was passed on some tips to  Chad le Clos before his younger teammate's 200m butterfly gold medal-winning performance.

"It's just things like deleting Twitter because you can't read those messages and think about gold. You've got to think about the little things, and about the race and executing it properly.

"When you think about what you can gain, about what a gold medal at the Olympic Games entails and how it can change your life, that freaks you out.  And that puts too much pressure on. You get over-excited and you can't race properly. So the whole time I was just listening to music, trying to relax, get in the zone, chill out and be myself.

"I was saying to guys on the team: 'Listen, don't leave me alone, just stay with me and talk about normal things.' Because as soon as you're by yourself, then you start thinking, thinking, thinking – and that's a problem."

Time to relax
The soothing sounds of John Mayer proved to be key in the breaststroker's build-up to the race as Van der Burgh found himself getting overexcited just before it all began.

"About an hour and a half before the race started, I was stretching and doing sit-ups and stuff and in that phase I got too excited. I started getting dizzy and my heart rate was so high. So then I needed to listen to John Mayer and just breathe and calm down."

Just before the race, South Africa's DJ Euphonik was the music of choice though. "He sent me a couple of tracks before, so that was pretty cool – to pump me up."

The home vibe evidently did the trick as in just 58 seconds, Van der Burgh blew the rest of the world away. He pointed up to the sky to thank his friend and rival, world champion Alex Dale Oen, who died earlier this year after cardiac arrest, and could then finally lie back and breathe a massive sigh of relief.

"I say thank you to God, obviously, for what he's given me, like the ability, and I say thank you to Alex because I believe when someone who was such a big part of your life passes away, they always leave something behind. I feel like the guy was looking after me. And I think he was probably looking down on me laughing and saying – 'You bugger, how did you go that fast?'"

In going that fast, Van der Burgh became the country's first homegrown Olympic swimming champion post-isolation, with the likes of Penny Heyns, Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling all having trained in the United States. And Le Clos was soon to follow.

Time to invest
"For those other guys, it wasn't possible back then, because there weren't people like Sascoc coming to the party and helping out. So it was like the only option you had was to go to America, because then you were given the funding and you could race. I was given the opportunity from a young age though to race overseas and Sascoc have looked after me.  I've had a few sponsors along the way as well who've enabled me to compete at any competition I want and have the equipment I need," says the grateful Van der Burgh.

"But 90% of the people on our team don't have that funding. Realistically, it's only a couple of guys that have it. If we can get more of them to have it then I think the whole team's level will rise dramatically. I think now, this just proves to Sascoc and to corporate South Africa what funding can really do – if they invest in Olympic athletes,' he adds.

While the fiercely patriotic star has made things work at home – and he's massively grateful for the support and sacrifice of his parents – his build-up to the Games hasn't always been the smoothest.

Just one of the challenges he's overcome is that for the past three winters, Van der Burgh has been powering past little old ladies and kids with pool noodles in the 25m pool at a local Virgin Active gym because the outdoor pools are simply too cold.

He points out that more investment and a centralised national training facility would be a massive step forward in ensuring 2016 will be an even happier hunting ground for the South African team.

"I think that's why we talk about sponsorships – we have such a rich gold mine of athletes in South Africa and I think we need to celebrate it more and invest more into it because it lifts the country up so much.

Time to dop
"You can see it on that YouTube clip. Sport unites people and I think that's the biggest present we can give South Africa," adds the new champion, who simply can't wait to get back to the country he loves so much to join the national celebration.

His manager, Ryk Neethling, has warned him that his life will be very different when he returns. And with people even stopping him on the London underground to offer their congratulations, Van der Burgh has already been given a hint of what's to come. But the down-to-earth Pretoria boy's plans are already in place for what's first on the agenda upon his return.

"I think the first thing I'm going to do is have a big braai and just relax with my mates," he reckons. "We've been away for so long, it'll be great to be with them again and celebrate. I'm going to have a dop and a chop … it'll be lekker."

But the idea of driving away from the pollution of Jozi to the tranquil wilderness of the Lowveld was a dream come true for me. I had never visited a game park, nor driven such a long distance through the evergreen expanse of northeastern Mpumalanga. I had great expectations.

As we passed through the country­side around Schoemanskloof and flitted past the banana plantations of White River my excitement continued to build. My dream was finding a place of absolute stillness, with no cellphones, radio, TV or internet. I was not disappointed.

Hoyo Hoyo Tsonga Lodge and Hamilton’s Tented Camp in the Mluwati concession are a 50km drive from Kruger Park’s Orpen Gate near Skukuza and once we hit that road we knew we were really close to nature: the first hint was having to pull over several times to make way for sluggish herds of elephant crossing the dirt road.

Our first stop was at Hoyo Hoyo, a down-to-earth, traditional camp, built in the ancient pattern of a Tsonga village. Its six traditionally furnished huts have beautifully embroidered cloths and textiles draping the walls and windows. I was a little disappointed at the absence of the traditional fabric in deep pinks, greens and purples that has been made famous by Tsonga women in their Shibelano dress (designed to make their backsides look bigger).

The stone-walled huts are thatched with straw sourced from female co-operatives in nearby villages.

In my search for the ultimate bush adventure I scorned the jacuzzi as being too lavish and jumped into the outdoor shower. The wildlife roams freely through the camp and my shower took a little longer than expected as I kept being distracted by a troop of baboons that was watching me with as much interest as I was watching it.

Sitting on the front porch of the hut listening to the many and varied calls of birds and insects brought back early childhood memories of rural North West province.

At sunset the Hoyo Hoyo crew announced supper with thudding drums and blasts on a kudu horn. Resident kudu horn-blower and janitor Rogers Mangena began working at Hoyo Hoyo when it first opened in 2003. He says that despite the long hours and time away from his family — he works 21 days in the park and then goes home for seven days — this is his dream job. ”I meet lots of interesting people every day. The bush is peaceful and kind and there is always something interesting happening,” he says.

The next day we set off for Hamil­ton’s Tented Camp, 14km deep into the bush. Named after Colonel Stephenson Hamilton, an instrumental figure in establishing the Kruger National Park, the camp reflects the era of the grand colonial safari adventure. The stylish tents have beautiful polished wooden floors and are decorated with pith helmets, battered trunks and old-fashioned binoculars, playing very much on the Out of Africa theme.

Resident game ranger Armand Minaar welcomed us and gave us a talk on game drive etiquette in prepa­ration for our three-hour drive. I thought of how many times I’d seen this on TV but had not imagined myself actually doing it.

I must confess, however, that I’m a lazy sort of guest and I preferred sitting on the porch outside my tent watching the game flocking to the waterhole.

Hamilton’s manager, Elmarie Gutchmidt, says that while the safari travel industry targets foreign guests, efforts are made to attract local tourists. ”We are trying to attract the local market but we have realised that it is not cheap for them to come up here, so we have introduced some special rates.”

As we packed to go home, I faced the long drive back to Kagiso with dread — how to explain my wonderful experience to people who think game parks are only for the elite? That may have been my one and only chance to visit the Kruger Park, but I’m going to keep spreading the word and encourage as many of my family and friends to visit this fantastic national treasure.

Monako Dibetle was a guest of Hoyo Hoyo and Hamilton’s Tented Camp

But creating that persona on the track is what it takes for Mokoena to be at his best. And that’s what it took to win the country its only medal of the Olympic Games.

”I think I was more focused, just shutting myself away from the outside world and being in my own world inside there doing my job,” explained the 23-year-old, whose 8,24m leap secured him the silver in the long jump.

”Those are two different people — the guy outside of track and field and the crocodile inside of track and field,” he added, referring to his surname, which means crocodile.

”When I compete I am talking to myself and I tell myself to cut out the world and I put myself in the position of the game.

”That’s when I’m at war. I will only see the outside world again after my sixth jump, but at that moment I’m at a military base and I’m at war, I’m hunting.”

It was only after that night that Mokoena could sit in the athletes’ village coffee shop and relax, being able to take in exactly what he had achieved.

”I’m so happy. It’s an overwhelming feeling. I don’t know how to express it.”

Happy, too, were the people of his hometown, Heidelberg, about 100km east of Johannesburg. They welcomed him at the OR Tambo International Airport as a hero and went on to celebrate the night away.

Mokoena, who now trains in Pretoria, took up athletics at primary school, but basketball and ballroom dancing also occupied much of his time back then.

”As a kid I was doing all the events — cross country, 1 000m, shot-put, long jump and high jump. I played basketball and I was also doing ballroom dancing. I was very good at that and did it for almost seven years,” he says.

”It was a lot of fun when I was a kid. I still like to dance now, though. I dance a little bit with my girlfriend; just play the music and do the cha-cha and that kind of stuff, but the samba is my favourite.”

Perhaps it was the flexibility and flair he picked up on the dance floor that helped him excel on the track, as once he got to Nigel High School, Mokoena was identified as an athlete with exceptional potential.

”The first time in my life I met an [athletics] coach was when I got to high school — she was Elna de Beer, who told me I had a good talent and I should start training with her. I did that and took up long jump and high jump as well.”

Mokoena later dropped the high jump (after getting stuck on the same height for two years) and picked up triple jump — the event for which he won the world junior title in 2004. He took world junior silver in the long jump that same year and was selected to travel to the Athens Olympics a few weeks later.

”I was coming back from the World Junior Championships and I told myself I’m going there [Athens] for experience and for fun. I was about to write my prelims so I took my books there. But I shoved the books under the bed and enjoyed the Games. There was no way I could study in that village. I was only 19 years old and I had fun.

”I didn’t know at that stage about how to focus and that kind of thing. I was still fooling around. Those guys I was competing against were huge; they were my role models and I had to compete against them. So I just thought I’m going to grab all the experience I can and go home.”

The experience proved to be invaluable for the South African record-holder, who decided that for two years he would focus solely on the long jump, picking up world indoor gold earlier this year and then returning to the Olympic Games more determined and a lot more mature.

”The difference this time round was that I was more disciplined, I was more dedicated and focused. This is a career to me — this is my job. It’s like a task given to me by the Lord so I just have to use it right and stay motivated and positive. I had dreams of winning a medal at the Olympic Games and becoming a great athlete and inspiring others as well. I had to grow and mature and put myself in the game,” he said.

”I felt it was my night. I actually felt at the beginning of the year that it was going to happen. I just had to stay focused and stay true to myself. I told myself I was going to bring home a medal, whether it was gold, silver or bronze, and it happened.”

It wasn’t because he’d just won his third medal of the Games, though. While it was a sign probably unfamiliar to most South Africans, American college swimmers easily recognised it as the WC of the Arizona Wildcats.

Four years on, South Africa may not be experiencing quite the same level of success in the pool, but there’s another South African Wildcat, who four years from now may just be causing the same sort of waves his teammate did in Athens.

He’s only 20 years old, but Jean Basson has shown clear signs of greater things to come, finishing just outside of the medals at his first Olympic Games.

Johannesburg-born Basson powered his way through the heats and semifinals of the 200m freestyle to make it to his biggest race to date, lining up in the final next to the likes of Michael Phelps and Peter Vanderkaay.

And although many of his teammates have failed to produce the goods in the morning swims when it really counted, the former St Stithians star kept his cool to finish in fourth place in 1:45,97.

It’s said that fourth is the worst spot to finish at an Olympics, just missing out on a podium spot, but there was no sign of disappointment for Basson, who knows he’ll have another chance.

”That was a lot of fun,” he beamed after the race. ”Going into the final, I really just wanted to savour the moment and enjoy it and I definitely did that. I’m happy with the outcome. I gave it my all. I didn’t have anything left in the tank at the end so I’m happy that I gave it my best shot,” he added.

Basson said he was unaware of where exactly Phelps, who went on to shatter yet another world record in the race, was in the pool, as he simply tried to stick with Vanderkaay, whom he knew would be in the medals.

”It’s cool for me to see that in my first major international final, at the Olympics, I came fourth. It gives me a lot of motivation to go back to Arizona and train harder and improve on things like my starts and my turns and the next time hopefully I can grab a medal,” he said.

While Basson would be the first to give plenty of credit to his previous coach in South Africa, former Olympian Peter Williams, he points to the training environment in Arizona as a massive boost to his training. In Tucson, he trains alongside the likes of Schoeman as well as Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and a host of international stars from around the world.

In fact, the University of Arizona has 25 athletes competing at these Games in Beijing. They have had at least one athlete at every Olympics since 1960 and have notched up a collection of 62 Olympic medals over the years, 32 of them gold. (Another teammate, Ryk Neethling, has the distinction of being one of just three Wildcats to have competed at four Olympics.)

It’s little wonder Basson is inspired every time he goes to training. ”We have an amazing training environment, starting with the coaches we have there. Their whole goal in life is just to make us better in the pool and make us better people overall,” he explained.

”And just from that there’s developed an amazing tradition of people that go there and amazing people you train with and race against every day.”

With this kind of environment available, it seems a pity that the powers that be in South African swimming have sometimes made life difficult for the United States-based swimmers, particularly when it is so evident that this is where most of the country’s swimming success stories have been bred over the years.

Athens was testament to that and it seems Beijing will be too.

And once it’s time for the Schoemans and Neethlings of the world to hand over the baton to their younger counterparts, Basson has proved he is ready and more than capable of carrying on the Wildcat tradition.

Potential performers
Potential SA highlights still to come:

Swimming:
Roland Schoeman: 50m freestyle final — August 16, 4.39am
Medley relay final — SA women (pending qualification): August 17, 4.40am
Medley relay final — SA men (pending qualification): August 17, 4.58am
Natalie du Toit: 10km swim — August 20, 3am

Athletics:
Khotso Mokoena (pending qualification): August 18, 2.10pm
LJ van Zyl, Alwyn Myburgh, Ter de Villiers (pending qualification): 400m hurdles final — August 18, 4pm
Robert Oosthuizen (pending qualification): javelin — August 23, 1.10pm
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (pending qualification): 800m final — August 23, 1.30pm
Hendrick Ramaala and Norman Dhlomo: marathon — August 24, 1.30am

Cycling:
Sifiso Nhlapo: BMX — August 21, 3.08am to 4.40am

Canoeing:
Shaun Rubenstein (pending qualification): K1 1 000m final — August 22, 9.30am
Shaun Rubenstein (pending qualification): K1 500m final — August 23, 9.30am
Jen Hodson (pending qualification): K1 500m final — August 23, 10.20am

Rowing:
Ramon di Clemente and Shaun Keeling: men’s pair final — August 16, 10.30am

Perhaps it is because at this stage of the Games four years ago, South Africa already had a gold and silver in the bag, or maybe it’s that the expectations were unreasonably high coming into these Olympics. Either way, it might be a little too soon to write this off as South Africa’s worst Games to date. After all, the athletics programme is still to come and there’s another week of action ahead.

Among the track and field athletes, BMX riders, rowers and canoeists, there are surely one or two who can ensure the country does not sink to the lowest levels it has reached — at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin where featherweight Charles Catterall was the sole medallist after collecting silver in the boxing ring.

Nevertheless, questions are still being asked why the Beijing crowds have not yet heard the strains of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, particularly at the famous Water Cube swimming venue.

Since the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 where golden girl Penny Heyns bagged double gold, South Africa’s swimmers have consistently contributed to the medal count at the Games.

Strange as it might sound, the problem with this year’s results probably started in Athens four years ago where a team of just seven men were sent to compete in the swimming. As it turned out, Roland Schoeman and his teammates were in sensational form and managed to stun the swimming world with some exceptional performances. But there were very few younger swimmers in the team, simply there to gain the experience of their first Olympics and to learn from it.

As a result, there was no base built for the next Games and no long-term plan so that this time round, with the top stars a little off form, the country is looking to a number of young and inexperienced (when it comes to the Olympics) swimmers who are actually here to gain experience so that they can be the ones to perform in London four years from now. But thankfully the long-term plan is now in place for 2012.

Although they might not have featured in the medals, these young swimmers have done everything that could have been asked of them — swimming best times and shattering numerous South African and African records.

Natalie du Toit, the Paralympic star who has made history by qualifying for these Games in the 10km marathon swim, summed it up well, saying: ”I’ve been watching the swimming team and they’ve done amazingly well. Most of them have gone out and broken South African and African records and made semifinals, which I don’t think they ever dreamed of. They have gone out and swum their best times and we can’t ask for any more than that.”

Athens relay gold medallist Darian Townsend also commented: ”It was a small team in 2004 and none of our girls got any exposure, so for the young girls here this is their first Olympics. They’ve been to world champs and that kind of thing but nothing compares to the competition here, so the small team in Athens did have some impact on the results now.”

Meanwhile, Hajera Kajee, chef de mission for Team South Africa, is refusing to panic just yet. ”I’m looking at the athletics team and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Khotso Mokoena and Hendrick Ramaala are looking in great shape. There’s a lot of talent there and I am hoping they can clinch a gold for us,” she said.

”But as South Africans we need to be patient. We always think we can work miracles — and there have been some of those like the ‘awesome foursome’ in Athens — but we have only been back for 12 years and are very young in the international arena.”

As for the suggestion that the limited resources available should be concentrated on sports that have clear medal potential rather than the ”no-hopers” such as fencing and badminton, Kajee said: ”We can’t do that. Not everyone in the country swims or does athletics. Many of the smaller sports would argue that if they had more resources available they would be able to produce medals, so it doesn’t work like that.”

Still, the Olympic team remains sponsorless — and if South African athletes are expected to compete on an equal footing with the rest of the world, the country will have to match the investment that is made in those teams against whom they are competing. A mere R95-million over four years for a team of 135 athletes is not going to go far on the medal table.