Itchy and Scratchy

Went into solitary confinement this weekend. Not entirely sure why. Probably because of how the weekend started (went to watch the movie Sunshine instead of joining colleagues for drinks. Also turned down a braai and a beauty pageant photo shoot, but then no one really called to ask where I was).

I thought I would focus on training this weekend, but instead, I just focussed on staying exactly where I was.

On the good side, I caught up on all the sleep I've ever missed in my entire life.
On the downside, my car has some gashes in the silver paintwork where some idiot tried to turn, and obviously underestimated his driving skill. Nice of him to drive away and leave me to figure out the damage. The irony is that one of the main reasons I moved was for the protection of my car!

This week I'd like to re-direct. Start getting into the routine of doing a hundred situps a day, and running, and basically prepping for the Jock, in July.

Meanwhile one of my cycling friends says this:

We have been disqualified in a race before for going over the white line and you know how difficult it is for a big bunch to stay on one side of the road and then on top of that they wanted to fine all of us $100 in accordance with the ICU laws for disobeying orders. It was a joke - also people that didn't even cycle themselves.

Watched a couple of DVD's this weekend. Was actually quite enjoyable. Saw Coen at Friendly with his pregnant soon-to-be-wife yesterday. Was invited to church but was actually glad I missed both - especially when I heard what had been discussed. Sometimes I think church can be quite interesting. Other times, most times, I think it is a bit of a bore.

Here's an article I wrote on the Roland Schoeman affair. Quite disgusting really.

Fraudsters on the Field
Why do we tolerate them?

Why do we tolerate those officious people who misrepresent sport? Let’s face it, when we say sport we think of: a sporting chance, being a good sport (a fair person, a gentleman), a healthy game meant to benefit one and all)

Why do we allow people who govern and officiate (I hate that word) to dictate unfair terms to exactly those people meant to be supported and assisted? There is the world of difference between being dictated to and being assisted, being told what to do and being asked: ‘how can we help?’. There is a world of difference between officiating and coaching. The Australians seem to me entirely passionate about sport, and their sportsmen; why aren’t other countries, especially ours, more like them?

It’s interesting that a country like Australia sees so much success in sport – and they’ve already held a superb Olympics – and yet South Africa, which likes to consider itself on par with Australia, isn’t nearly as successful; in fact we don’t come close. In all our sporting ventures, we struggle to produce a consistent champion. This is true in almost every area of sport:
- athletics, swimming, rugby, cricket, golf, football, tennis, cycling, triathlon

Readers are welcome to go and do the math. How often has South Africa produced a world champion (or just a champion) in any of the above sports, and then, importantly, been able to keep them there? Been able to kindle that talent, keep it alive, and support it? What we see happening instead is that champions emerge – like Zola and Elana, like Penny and Roland, like our rugby and cricket squads, like our Ernie Els’s and Wayne Ferreira’s, like Robert Hunter, David George and Raynard Tissink – but then the onus is entirely on them to survive and succeed. It’s impossible to compete for as long, and as well, as other teams with all their backup, when you have none of it. The stress dimension is just too much. Our athletes are given very little support or encouragement, principally because virtually no infrastructure (including sponsorship) is in place. Then, when the Olympics arrive (and South Africa have fancied themselves as Olympic hosts, what a joke!) South Africans are ready to see ‘their’ champions succeed.

The infrastructure here is in fact so decrepit, so under par, and the officials so officious and disconnected (when they exist at all), it’s little wonder that our best athletes spend large amounts of time attempting to train abroad. It’s not easy. And of course it’s up to the athlete to motivate him or herself. Remarkably, many of our athletes do. What is inexcusable then, are the attitudes these athletes have to deal with once the training has been done.
So, for example, when SA excludes its number one swimmer (and world number one, in fact the world’s fastest ever swimmer) from the SA Olympic Team, it makes sense to speak to the genius in whose wisdom this brilliant decision was contrived. This specimen happens to be the president of Swimming SA. It’s an auspicious title, a title one suspects leads to a crumb imagining it’s a slice of bread (and not what it really is).
A small, chubby cheeked and spectacled man, Jace Naidoo, is the president of Swimming South Africa. He is an interesting choice, I have to add, because in the 13 years that I swam at club level I don’t remember seeing that many Indians swimming competitively. It’s just an observation. I’m not taking a swipe. It just seems peculiar that the man who represents swimmers in South Africa appears not to be representative of the swimmers I swam with, and the swimmers I see today. Perhaps it is a good initial criticism, merely to suggest that the president of Swimming SA ought to have at least swum a little – no, make that a lot – once upon a time, in order to appreciate that training and other things he might not know about, are actually involved. So yes, I think the president of a body ought to be elected out of a community of swimmers, perhaps even better, by a community of swimmers. This cannot possibly be the case in our example because I don’t ever remember training beside a Naidoo or a Patel. It’s a name that we might associate with cricket, certainly. But this is swimming, and so I wonder what Mr. Naidoo’s personal interest, in fact his passion, might be, for a sport that he apparently has no history with. Why choose swimming Mr Naidoo? To have a job? Perhaps this is the moral of the story. Perhaps once upon a time he found himself wanting to swim in a swimming pool and things didn’t really work out according to his plan and now he wants to exact revenge on all swimmers, including (and perhaps especially) the world champion. This is not really in keeping with the above-mentioned ‘sporting protocols’.

In yesterday’s Sunday Times, Chris Barron fittingly asked questions about the decision.
CB: Do you sympathize with his (Roland Schoeman’s) explanation that he couldn’t afford to attend (National Swimming trials)?
JN: For swimmers based out of the country to come to South Africa blah blab blah…
(To summarize: No, Mr Naidoo does not sympathize – at all).
CB: By refusing to help with travel costs to attend the national events you make it very difficult for someone like Schoeman who is based in the US, don’t you?
JN: We’d like to be able to support him more but the moment we start paying for him there are a number of other swimmers who meet this criterion…
(A number of other world champions? Here it is obvious that the president is being pigheaded and tricky. Can intelligent people not think intelligently, creatively, without being bound by ‘what other people may say of us’? In any event, if SSA was concerned about popular opinion/criticism, they would be assisting Schoeman. His case is making national news. So no, you don’t care about public opinion, unless it is to get enough attention so that eventually you might be offered a bribe. But yes, you are making it very difficult. Why are you making it difficult? Because you can. To prove how important you are. To prove you are doing your job in a way that gets you attention and everyone notices you. And probably, to enrich yourself with a big fat bribe. Oh, have I mentioned that once already?).
JN: (Absolving his guilt): We haven’t excluded them. They chose not to participate (they could not, because they could not afford to, and they could not afford to because SSA did not support them).
CB: Schoeman says the first he heard about being suspended was in the newspapers. (A way of asking, are you at least communicating, clearly, with the world champion – Roland Schoeman – so he knows what is going on?)
JN: Criteria were sent to all the athletes blah blah blah… (Translates to: No.)

The country needs to get serious about what the Olympic spirit is, and in particular, the officious bunch of people everywhere, who do nothing but officiate without care or consideration. Where is a sense of common humanity? Of encouraging the pursuit of excellence? I am thoroughly sickened by the backstabbing and the politics of punishment in my own province (by the local cycling authorities), but it’s far more widespread than that. Athletes who are being stung by these people must root them out and put people in who can actually do their job in the service and spirit of sport.