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Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2015
Friday, November 21, 2014
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
The Heart of the Joule
Is the Joule destined for gemstone greatness, or will this be another case of Electric fool’s gold?
On the eve of Earth Hour I’m as energy conscious as everyone else. I’m flying on a milky March day to Cape Town. Once there I consider myself fortunate to snap up the very last rental, a snow white Toyota Yaris. Freshly ensconced in an ICEV [Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle] I cruise onto the N2 and almost crash headlong into a traffic jam that deceptively starts its slow snaking on the downside of a flyover. I’m heading via the traffic snarl towards the CSIR in Stellenbosch where I’ll be meeting the electrical engineer Gerard Swart, one of the four brains that conceived the Joule.
While I’m motivated and excited about my imminent encounter, I’m fully prepared for a wild goose chase. It’s no secret that the concept of the electric car has been in play ever since the first ICE rolled off Ford’s assembly line. Sure, EV’s can be built (in fact, we’re surrounded by a number of low-tech EV’s on a daily basis, from golf carts, to buses, to the occasional milk van or baggage truck) – the problem is they’re not easy to render profitably on a mass scale. If no one has been able to crack into the commercial vehicle fleets at a profit so why should the Joule be any different?
I enter the CSIR building as a veil of thin cirrus swirls in front of the sun. I am the first to arrive and my guns are loaded. Has the Joule solved the battery problem? (EV’s have prohibitively expensive batteries, and these usually have a very limited lifespan). Does the Joule solve the energy problem? (Is there a net energy difference – i.o.w. a difference (a saving) between pouring petrol or liquefied coal into your car compared to converting coal to electric energy used for batteries and then propulsion – if not, the Joule is a dead duck). Finally, will the Joule project have access to a lot of capital to finance a large rollout and world domination?
When Gerhard arrives to set up his laptop I immediately stand up and invite him for an unscheduled quick Q&A session before his presentation. It’s a credit to him that he graciously accepts my invitation while delegates sip wine and chew on carrot sticks outside the auditorium.
First off, Gerhard tells me in unexpectedly soft-spoken and well-enunciated English that he “loves nature” and that he grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe. He refers to pristine environments and “virgin territory” which he says now can only be found on old photographs. I ask him about his background. “Twenty years ago I was at DENEL,” South Africa’s premier defense lab. It’s obviously a mixed bag, hearing that Swart worked on the Rooivalk attack helicopter, specifically the weapons systems. How altruistic is that? I’m wondering.
After Rooivalk, Swart and three colleagues migrated to SALT (Southern African Large Telescope; the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere). Swart tells me that the systems engineering performed on the 11-metre hexagonal mirror array at Sutherland was “at the cutting edge of what is technically possible. Our work at SALT meant we were competing at a very high level and we had a lot of involvement from the best scientists in that field, worldwide.”
While Swart and his colleagues had to employ more brain cells and circuits than ever on SALT, he discovered the move from Gauteng to Cape Town had also precipitated a lifestyle change: “My quality of life immediately increased; you know, to be able to go and climb a mountain and sit on the beach rather than getting into a car for three hours to get to a park somewhere.”
The successful project, which started in 2000, effectively became the Progenitor of another South African milestone, the groundbreaking Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a radio telescope currently in development in the Northern Cape – the Array will be 50 times more sensitive than other systems of its kind.
“So I lived in Sutherland for eighteen months during 2004 until November 2005. It was as rural as it gets. And I shared this lonely experience with Jian Swiegers, Kobus Meiring and Mike Lomberg. And it was then, working on what was essentially a non-defence-project, where information is freely available, that Kobus started talking about giving something back. He said ‘The nature of energy is going to change a lot in the future. I’m at the point in my life where I want to put something back.’ And we all agreed to that.”
My gaze shifts from Gerhard’s face to the sharply focused blue eyes.
“2005 was when energy started coming onto the radar, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, and as our work at SALT was coming to an end, the four of us said: ‘What are we going to do next’? And since we’d worked well together, we decided we wanted to make a positive difference. It’s hard to rationalise your work on defense systems when they’re being sold to other countries, and you don’t know which side they’re selling it to…You come to a point where you feel: ‘This isn’t right.’ That’s why I left DENEL in 1996.”
“So now you’ve gone from building things that destroy other things to building things that look out into the universe to…”
The unstated question is, will this project, this car, subtract from the woes generated by other cars? Woes that include pollution, resource depletion (resources that could be utilised as fertilizers and medicines for generations to come) and a widening systemic collapse that threatens to disintegrate the entire auto-industry.
“In our efforts to make a positive difference, Kobus especially did a lot of research, and we came up with the idea of an electric vehicle. Then we went to the Innovation Fund – a South African Department affiliated to the Department of Science and Technology. We got seed funding for early development; it’s probably the only fund in the country where you can get funds for early development. It took us 18 months to get the money; not because they weren’t convinced of the merits of the project – it’s just a very cumbersome process. We got R5 million for the first year, which was really a feasibility study, a paper study, with a promise of R10 million to follow. While they initially requested we get additional funding from an industrial partner, they later came to believe – as we do – that this was too big to hastily involve someone else. So they gave us their full backing to nurture this project to its completion. And since 2008 the IDC have also started backing us. So the IDC and the Innovation Fund are shareholders in Optimal Energy.”
“I want to know how you guys set about developing this EV. Did you follow other developments or did you go in your own direction? In other words, how distinctive is the JOULE from the EV projects that have come and gone?”
“What we did early on, in fact even before we had funding, we started going to energy and EV conferences specifically. The Electric Vehicle Symposium is in its 24th year this year (scheduled for May in Stavanger, Norway). The automotive industry considers it a fringe conference. In the last few years the automakers have been attending, but prior to that they’d been scoffing at it.”
“Before the Electric Vehicle idea had been fully conceived,” I ask, “had you guys heard of things like Peak Oil?”
“Yes. That’s really to a large extent what triggered this. Firstly we saw that the nature of transport had to change because it’s not sustainable. Carbon-based fuels are at some stage going to run out and obviously liquid hydro-carbons (petrol and diesel) are going to run out sooner. We also looked at the auto-industry and noticed quite a few things that indicated its demise.”
“Such as?”
“Such as General Motors having their Pension Fund payouts listed as their biggest single expense in the company. Their margins over the last 10 years haven’t exceeded around 4%. Those are the high-level symptoms. When you delve in deeper you see that all of us drive vehicles. You know the basic shape and concept hasn’t changed since Henry Ford sent those first vehicles through the assembly lines.”
And now the epiphany begins to ring like a small bell in my ears. Ordinary vehicle technology is very old, and facing its natural obsolescence. Once one accepts this as a fundamental truth, it is easy to move forward. But is there a superior alternative technology available (compared to the dead ends that preceded this project) capable of delivering the right dose of energy for the energy gluttons that we commuters have invariably become?
“We realised, from an engineering point of view, that motoring the way we’re experiencing it is not optimal. That was also one of the reasons why we called the company Optimal Energy. It’s really about optimising things other people have tried to do, but who have become stuck in a particular way of doing it. The transport thing was the first step in this whole energy dream that we had in mind.”
“If you get to the stage where you want to roll this out as a very elaborate project, you know, worldwide, how do you see the credit crisis impacting on your business? Will you be able to get the capital to go into mass production?”
“In the short term we haven’t found the huge investment that is needed to set up our production. When we launched the vehicle at the Paris show last year, we suddenly saw numerous appointments that we’d arranged with major investors fizzle – remember the big crash happened 2 weeks before the show opened. And they told us this: that in two weeks most of their cash had evaporated.
From a longer term point of view it’s been fantastic because people are looking for new answers to the economy and the automotive industry; and have recognised that a fundamental shift is taking place. Our vehicle has been so well-received everywhere we’ve shown it because people are ready for it, and so in a certain sense it’s a growth path laid out for us; a path that we can just get onto and from which we can leverage our way even further into the industry. You know the automotive industry is really struggling to adapt to current conditions.”
In fact GM and Chrysler have consistently failed to adapt. Instead of building smaller, more efficient vehicles and having to compete with the experts at this (the Japanese, Germans and Koreans), they’ve done the opposite. At the time of writing, Obama is speaking on television news that these automakers will not be the wards of government. If they fail to perform (in other words to innovate, to adapt, to optimise) they will be placed in the dustbin of history. Almost certainly, the writing is on the wall, and what will take the place of this giant chunk of obsolete engineering removed from the highways and byways of the world?
“They’ve got so many legacy systems, so many existing designs – for them to make the changes that we’ve just introduced from a fresh start, you know, is just about impossible.”
It’s time to draw my revolver.
“One of the most expensive and troublesome and expensive areas when it comes to EV technology – am I right – is the battery?”
“Yes.”
“Have you guys solved that problem?”
“We haven’t solved it fully, but we’re relying on a trend that has been underway for many years and is set to continue. Batteries have become better and cheaper with increased use. It’s especially due to the lithium ion batteries in cellphones and laptops that this technology has really become more affordable. We’ve been to China and Korea and the United States looking for batteries…”
“The Koreans are quite advanced in battery manufacture,” I say, a mental image of the world’s largest Philips-LG flatscreen flashing to the surface - image courtesy of cycling trips I did north of Seoul.”
“Yes. Our prototype in fact is using Korean batteries. They’re delivering quantum improvements in battery technology. I was there for the first time in August last year, visiting some of these battery companies.”
The puzzle of the Joule is fitting together nicely. Expertise in weapons design courtesy of a stint working in Defense Labs for the government, the super-fine science and engineering of space telescopes and some fortuitous help from abroad in the form of the magic key, the battery. And to think that all of this is happening within the increasingly appropriate economic environment of collapse and systemic reform – not only of automakers, but of energy, banks and perhaps most importantly, our global mindset. While the consumer frenzy has unlocked all sorts of anthropogenic shocks – from global warming to depletion to the extraordinary zenith in technological zeal. One vital benefit has emerged: the development par excellence, and entirely perfunctory, of the ordinary devices all these gadgets run on – lithium ion batteries.
The masters of reinventing, re-engineering, and innovation are the Koreans. They’ve done this with everything from their own economy, to their own vehicle and shipbuilding fleets. It’s not for nothing that a country 10% the size of South Africa, with the same population size, is the world’s 13th largest economy – and they reached this level from being one of the poorest countries, flattened by war in 1953. In Korea, speed is a catchphrase: everything is fast, from the internet to building construction.
But the story, as Gerhard says, is still unfolding.
“Their batteries are really fantastic, but they’re expensive. The Chinese batteries are cheaper, but they’re not as good.”
“So how many of your vehicles are out there right now?”
“None.”
“So what was at the Paris show?”
“A rolling chassis. An undercarriage with a drivetrain, the batteries – that was finished in 2007, and also the outer shell of the vehicle. The model was what was at the Paris show. And since then we’ve been working on a second prototype which is refined, with everything in it, and fully functional. Last week Friday we declared it mechanically complete. It’s still not drivable but everything is there. Now it is just the software and electrical functionality and safety testing that needs to be done.
“Due to the sanctions in then-Rhodesia my father had to be extremely inventive on the farm to actually make things work out; we had to make our own spare parts for tractors. He was an innovator – he could do anything. And that created in me, I think, two things: the realisation, firstly, that perhaps nothing is impossible, that if you really apply your mind you can do many things. And secondly it created an appreciation for the value…of knowing a bit about everything. My function on the Rooivalk and with SALT and Optimal Energy is what they call System Engineering which is basically what the International Council on Systems Engineering [INCOSE] is about – a multi-disciplined engineering; where you bring a whole lot of unrelated things together to achieve a greater purpose. And I think the roots of my interest and my success at that may be found in having learned from my father’s attitude on the farm, and my being involved in what he did.”
During these last statements, where Gerhard really reaches the core of his philosophy, several delegates begin to enter the auditorium and I’m prodded to wrap up. As Gerhard hands me his card, an elegant royal blue that has the corporate feel of a South African Samsung, I say, “Well I think ultimately we’ll be going back to the farm.”
That’s some way off, but in a sense, I realise, this project, Gerhard and his team’s dream of the world’s first mass produced electric car, may well be one of those critical and vital solutions our world needs in this time of converging troubles. Gerhard Swart, I believe, provides cause to celebrate in Possibility, in what may well be the first fundamental shift in our prospects.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Phelps Video + Interview
Did you know the oldest member of the US team is Jason Lezak (at 32)? Phelps is 23.
Click on the link below to watch a decent video and interview on MP.
Click on the link below to watch a decent video and interview on MP.
 clipped from sports.yahoo.com
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Saturday, October 20, 2007
Bullard: Out to Lunch TV Talk Show (INTERVIEW PART 3)
Bullard: Somebody wants to do that. I mean they want to do an Out to Lunch show. It’s like radio. I was asked to do a radio show as well. You’re tied down. I don’t want to be tied down. I don’t want to do [GARBLED] Jenny Crwys-Williams; being in the studio every lunch time to do a show between 1 and 4.
RP: Mmm.
Bullard: I mean I go away for four days on car launches because I can.
NVDL: Where do you go?
Bullard: Umm – where ever they go. Spain – a lot of overseas launches – Spain, America, UK…
NVDL: It’s a nice life hey?
Bullard: Well it sounds a nice life, but there are a lot of delays at airports and the security in Europe, and you go and drive a car on the wrong side of the road for a day or two. If Porsche is hosting it’s a fabulous life. You have a bloody good party that night, get very pissed, get up the next morning, drive a Porsche and then fly back, Business Class, in the afternoon.
RP: [Chuckles].
Bullard: But with three connections. So there’s an upside and a downside. You’ve still got to produce the words. But the problem is I couldn’t do that if I was doing a radio show or a television show. I couldn’t do any of this stuff; and I do a lot of MCing.
NVDL: But you could [do the stuff you do] after a few seasons.
Bullard: No. You could but… [Hesitates a moment] For example if I’ve got an evening show I can’t do any MCing. So somebody phones and says, ‘Will you MC an event,” I have to say I can’t, I have the evening show. So evening shows are way out. Can’t do that. Could record something. Possibly could record a few things and stack them up. And that might help. But on a regular live show it’s just…
NVDL: Then you don’t do it live you do it all prerecorded.
Bullard: Could do that.
RP: Yeah. And that way you’re not tied down.
Sponsor Wanted
Bullard: The thing with that – and it’s been as I say mooted a couple of times; and everyone says, the SABC says – ‘who is the sponsor Bring the sponsor?’ Because they’re not prepared to put up the money for it. So you go to them and say right: ‘It’s sponsored by Vodacom; here’s a large portion of money. Mr Bullard’s wardrobe by so and so; his hair by so and so. Dancing girls, full orchestra in the back and that’s great. And they then take all the advertising, because that’s the way they run the business. So if you’ve got a sponsor you can do it.
NVDL: Mmmm.
Bullard: We have one or two people looking… It’s a question of commitment, really. Unless someone’s got to, say, rack in a couple of million for production costs, then it’s not going to happen.
NVDL: We need – you know like you get Oprah in America – we need that sort of personality here.
RP: Yeah.
NVDL: And we’ve got Noleen [making a slight face].
RP: Exactly.
Bullard: Well it gets viewers. People like that sort of thing.
RP: But we need some talk show hosts that thinks in controversial aspects.
NVDL: I also think you express – like in your column – what you say is stuff that is quite urgent actually.
Bullard: Yes.
NVDL: And it’s almost like a form of leadership. And I think more people need to join that conversation. Because what’s happening is: a lot of what you’re saying is needed and people are thinking that, but they’re not expressing it.
Let's Talk About Leadership
Bullard: Couldn’t agree more. Because it is a sort’ve ‘zeitgeist’ – to use that overused word. Because a lot of people are saying: “Gee whiz, we read your column and it’s exactly what we discussed over dinner on Saturday night.” Well it’s very read what we’re going to be talking about this weekend. It’s going to be about Mbeki’s dishonesty. I mean my article this week is about Mbeki’s web of evil. And the editor is happy that it goes through, and I think it is a web of evil. But you know, your point is very well made.
It’s kind’ve like aging: I can go to the mirror in the morning and I can now see visible signs of aging. I can now see eyebrows have grown longer and a few more wrinkles. But I mean it’s happening gradually over time. If I look back at a photograph I can see what I was like. Now put that into the political perspective. We look back at a snapshot of South Africa five years ago and we’re very optimistic. Even two years ago. We’re now gradually losing our freedoms. And it’s not until we wake up with all those wrinkles…
NVDL: Yeah.
Bullard: …And we look in the mirror and say: we’re not allowed to say this. Some journalists – that newspaper disappeared, my mates are in prison.
RP: Yup.
Bullard: Or they’ve run out the country. The judges have all been bought off by the ruling party. They’ve gotten rid of anyone in the National Prosecuting Authority who doesn’t please Mbeki or his guys: bloody dangerous. And so you’re absolutely right-
NVDL: And it’s happening right now.
Wanted: Rallying Call
Bullard: You need a rallying call. Well absolutely right. And a lot of people are feeling helpless because business – apart from FNB, which I think was handled pretty badly-
NVDL: That was a shame.
Bullard: But you know Johan Rupert, in a conversation with me, I mean they were banned under the Nats, because they upset them and basically what the government did was hold back their import licenses for a year and starve the company of profits. And business is very aware of the strength of the politicians who can do whatever they like. Because there’s just no control. We actually need a new struggle. I’ve been reading the black columnists; and I hate to differentiate - they have to differentiate because they were part of the struggle, I wasn’t – reading their comments, and about their depression and Justice Malala particularly I think is very vocala and getting a lot of comment and I agree with pretty well everything he says. Um… You know you need some sort of reaction.
NVDL: Yeah. It’s actually an important thing we need. I’ve heard quite a few comments from black people saying – cautiously – that some things under the previous regime were actually better. There was less of this and less of that. Not to say we want to go back to that, but just to say how bad things are now. And to actually say that is like saying: Wow, things are shit. This can’t carry on. We’re actually going way beyond what’s unacceptable.
Bullard: Yeah that’s encouraging because people are recognizing that. On the other hand you go down to the rural areas where you have nothing, and I mean here the similarity is the tornado story last week.
Irrational Behaviour
People went home, and behaved irrationally, only because they didn’t have information to counter the irrational information they’d been given. The skies were dark; it was a tornado, get on the road, get in a traffic jam and behave stupidly. And then realize afterwards you’d been suckered. Now, put that into an election thing. Go to the rural areas and say:
“Jacob Zuma will save you. He will give you houses; he will give you cars," and you vote for him – because that’s what he said. Only afterwards you realize… I mean we all have this madness and delusion in crowds. And everyone is capable of being lead. And I think the government is working to do that very well. Where there is absolutely no counter-opinions. No opposition.
NVDL: Who would you suggest is a good leader [a possible presidential candidate]?
Watch this space to find out who David Bullard recommends to lead this country. To read the previous 2 or the following 2 transcripts, click on the label The Bullard Tapes below.
RP: Mmm.
Bullard: I mean I go away for four days on car launches because I can.
NVDL: Where do you go?
Bullard: Umm – where ever they go. Spain – a lot of overseas launches – Spain, America, UK…
NVDL: It’s a nice life hey?
Bullard: Well it sounds a nice life, but there are a lot of delays at airports and the security in Europe, and you go and drive a car on the wrong side of the road for a day or two. If Porsche is hosting it’s a fabulous life. You have a bloody good party that night, get very pissed, get up the next morning, drive a Porsche and then fly back, Business Class, in the afternoon.
RP: [Chuckles].
Bullard: But with three connections. So there’s an upside and a downside. You’ve still got to produce the words. But the problem is I couldn’t do that if I was doing a radio show or a television show. I couldn’t do any of this stuff; and I do a lot of MCing.
NVDL: But you could [do the stuff you do] after a few seasons.
Bullard: No. You could but… [Hesitates a moment] For example if I’ve got an evening show I can’t do any MCing. So somebody phones and says, ‘Will you MC an event,” I have to say I can’t, I have the evening show. So evening shows are way out. Can’t do that. Could record something. Possibly could record a few things and stack them up. And that might help. But on a regular live show it’s just…
NVDL: Then you don’t do it live you do it all prerecorded.
Bullard: Could do that.
RP: Yeah. And that way you’re not tied down.
Sponsor Wanted
Bullard: The thing with that – and it’s been as I say mooted a couple of times; and everyone says, the SABC says – ‘who is the sponsor Bring the sponsor?’ Because they’re not prepared to put up the money for it. So you go to them and say right: ‘It’s sponsored by Vodacom; here’s a large portion of money. Mr Bullard’s wardrobe by so and so; his hair by so and so. Dancing girls, full orchestra in the back and that’s great. And they then take all the advertising, because that’s the way they run the business. So if you’ve got a sponsor you can do it.
NVDL: Mmmm.
Bullard: We have one or two people looking… It’s a question of commitment, really. Unless someone’s got to, say, rack in a couple of million for production costs, then it’s not going to happen.
NVDL: We need – you know like you get Oprah in America – we need that sort of personality here.
RP: Yeah.
NVDL: And we’ve got Noleen [making a slight face].
RP: Exactly.
Bullard: Well it gets viewers. People like that sort of thing.
RP: But we need some talk show hosts that thinks in controversial aspects.
NVDL: I also think you express – like in your column – what you say is stuff that is quite urgent actually.
Bullard: Yes.
NVDL: And it’s almost like a form of leadership. And I think more people need to join that conversation. Because what’s happening is: a lot of what you’re saying is needed and people are thinking that, but they’re not expressing it.
Let's Talk About Leadership
Bullard: Couldn’t agree more. Because it is a sort’ve ‘zeitgeist’ – to use that overused word. Because a lot of people are saying: “Gee whiz, we read your column and it’s exactly what we discussed over dinner on Saturday night.” Well it’s very read what we’re going to be talking about this weekend. It’s going to be about Mbeki’s dishonesty. I mean my article this week is about Mbeki’s web of evil. And the editor is happy that it goes through, and I think it is a web of evil. But you know, your point is very well made.
It’s kind’ve like aging: I can go to the mirror in the morning and I can now see visible signs of aging. I can now see eyebrows have grown longer and a few more wrinkles. But I mean it’s happening gradually over time. If I look back at a photograph I can see what I was like. Now put that into the political perspective. We look back at a snapshot of South Africa five years ago and we’re very optimistic. Even two years ago. We’re now gradually losing our freedoms. And it’s not until we wake up with all those wrinkles…
NVDL: Yeah.
Bullard: …And we look in the mirror and say: we’re not allowed to say this. Some journalists – that newspaper disappeared, my mates are in prison.
RP: Yup.
Bullard: Or they’ve run out the country. The judges have all been bought off by the ruling party. They’ve gotten rid of anyone in the National Prosecuting Authority who doesn’t please Mbeki or his guys: bloody dangerous. And so you’re absolutely right-
NVDL: And it’s happening right now.
Wanted: Rallying Call
Bullard: You need a rallying call. Well absolutely right. And a lot of people are feeling helpless because business – apart from FNB, which I think was handled pretty badly-
NVDL: That was a shame.
Bullard: But you know Johan Rupert, in a conversation with me, I mean they were banned under the Nats, because they upset them and basically what the government did was hold back their import licenses for a year and starve the company of profits. And business is very aware of the strength of the politicians who can do whatever they like. Because there’s just no control. We actually need a new struggle. I’ve been reading the black columnists; and I hate to differentiate - they have to differentiate because they were part of the struggle, I wasn’t – reading their comments, and about their depression and Justice Malala particularly I think is very vocala and getting a lot of comment and I agree with pretty well everything he says. Um… You know you need some sort of reaction.
NVDL: Yeah. It’s actually an important thing we need. I’ve heard quite a few comments from black people saying – cautiously – that some things under the previous regime were actually better. There was less of this and less of that. Not to say we want to go back to that, but just to say how bad things are now. And to actually say that is like saying: Wow, things are shit. This can’t carry on. We’re actually going way beyond what’s unacceptable.
Bullard: Yeah that’s encouraging because people are recognizing that. On the other hand you go down to the rural areas where you have nothing, and I mean here the similarity is the tornado story last week.
Irrational Behaviour
People went home, and behaved irrationally, only because they didn’t have information to counter the irrational information they’d been given. The skies were dark; it was a tornado, get on the road, get in a traffic jam and behave stupidly. And then realize afterwards you’d been suckered. Now, put that into an election thing. Go to the rural areas and say:
“Jacob Zuma will save you. He will give you houses; he will give you cars," and you vote for him – because that’s what he said. Only afterwards you realize… I mean we all have this madness and delusion in crowds. And everyone is capable of being lead. And I think the government is working to do that very well. Where there is absolutely no counter-opinions. No opposition.
NVDL: Who would you suggest is a good leader [a possible presidential candidate]?
Watch this space to find out who David Bullard recommends to lead this country. To read the previous 2 or the following 2 transcripts, click on the label The Bullard Tapes below.
Friday, October 19, 2007
47: BELIEVE
‘I would not have survived four years in this job without knowing how to fight’ - JW
The Times' Aspasia Karras writes: Jake White is sitting in the lobby of the hotel in Paris where the Springboks have been based for the past few weeks. He is showing me his rubber bracelet which is inscribed with the legend: We believe 47.
It seems that the number 47 has been invested with an almost mystical importance for the team. He explains: “There are 30 players and 17 staff, 47 days in the World Cup, 4 pools and 7 games in total, 4 plus 7 is 11, [Bryan] Habana is our top scorer — there is an omen there.”
Go here to watch Jake ’n the Boks (VIDEO)
NVDL: This is awesome, inspiring stuff. I think the added ingredient to the World Cup Game - the pressure - is the wildcard factor. England have the sort of team that chokes other teams. But not this one.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Safe Sex and the Romance Novel
An interview with Kate Hofman, author of Greek Fire
Ambrose Musiyiwa
This year alone, she has published seven romance novels, among them, A Greek Love Story (Romance At Heart, 2007), Castle in Spain (The Dark Castle Lords, 2007), Navajo Dreams (Romance At Heart, 2007), Greek Fire (Romance At Heart, 2007) and A Sensual Seduction (Romance At Heart, 2007).Two more novels, A Greater Love (Romance at Heart, November/December 2007) and The Spanish Conquest (AweStruck EBooks, February 2008) are going to be released soon.
In a recent interview, she spoke about her writing.
When did you start writing?
On April 22, 2002. The romance author Nina Bruhns, for whom I do Internet publicity, said that I should write. I was very surprised, but decided to try it, and found that she was right. Writing came easy to me.
I’ll also tell you my most daunting moment: when I sat down in front of that blank page on my computer. I remember thinking, I must be mad to think I can do this. And then I thought, Nina thinks you can. Do it! And, slowly, I began to type WILL AND KIKI (right from the start I titled all my books with the names of the protagonists. Later, when I got published, I had to think of actual titles -- which I am lousy at…) I remember looking at my watch as I began to type WILL AND KIKI.It was five o’clock.
By one o’clock that morning, I had 13 pages of close-typed script. Not all of it good, mind you! I did a lot of revising, rewrites, deleting, you name it, I did it. But I had a strange feeling that I could do this.
This year alone, you've published seven books. How did this happen?
I had been writing in happy obscurity for about five years, when one of my friends, the writer Jennifer Mueller (a fabulous writer!) said to me, You should submit something to a publisher. I doubted I was ready for that, but I had written 25 books in the five years since April 2002, and Jennifer persuaded me to submit.
In November, 2006, I submitted a book to Awe-Struck, and three books to Romance At Heart, intending to give RAH a choice. To my intense surprise, they accepted all three.
For the rest of this Ohmynews article click here.
Ambrose Musiyiwa
This year alone, she has published seven romance novels, among them, A Greek Love Story (Romance At Heart, 2007), Castle in Spain (The Dark Castle Lords, 2007), Navajo Dreams (Romance At Heart, 2007), Greek Fire (Romance At Heart, 2007) and A Sensual Seduction (Romance At Heart, 2007).Two more novels, A Greater Love (Romance at Heart, November/December 2007) and The Spanish Conquest (AweStruck EBooks, February 2008) are going to be released soon.
In a recent interview, she spoke about her writing.
When did you start writing?
On April 22, 2002. The romance author Nina Bruhns, for whom I do Internet publicity, said that I should write. I was very surprised, but decided to try it, and found that she was right. Writing came easy to me.
I’ll also tell you my most daunting moment: when I sat down in front of that blank page on my computer. I remember thinking, I must be mad to think I can do this. And then I thought, Nina thinks you can. Do it! And, slowly, I began to type WILL AND KIKI (right from the start I titled all my books with the names of the protagonists. Later, when I got published, I had to think of actual titles -- which I am lousy at…) I remember looking at my watch as I began to type WILL AND KIKI.It was five o’clock.
By one o’clock that morning, I had 13 pages of close-typed script. Not all of it good, mind you! I did a lot of revising, rewrites, deleting, you name it, I did it. But I had a strange feeling that I could do this.
This year alone, you've published seven books. How did this happen?
I had been writing in happy obscurity for about five years, when one of my friends, the writer Jennifer Mueller (a fabulous writer!) said to me, You should submit something to a publisher. I doubted I was ready for that, but I had written 25 books in the five years since April 2002, and Jennifer persuaded me to submit.
In November, 2006, I submitted a book to Awe-Struck, and three books to Romance At Heart, intending to give RAH a choice. To my intense surprise, they accepted all three.
For the rest of this Ohmynews article click here.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Chabal Cited (INCLUDES INTERVIEW)
From rugbyworldcup.com:
PARIS, 14 October - Following the France v England semi-final match in Paris on Saturday, 13 October, a French player has been cited by citing commissioner Dennis Wheelahan.
The French forward Sébastien Chabal has been cited for an alleged dangerous tackle on the England player Simon Shaw. The player and his team management have been informed and a hearing will take place tomorrow, Monday, 15 October, in Paris.
Interview Of Chabal - For more amazing video clips, click here
NVDL: Let's hope none of our players get cited after the fisticuffs towards the end of the Argentina game. Seems like we are being treated to double standards in terms of citing and referee decisions apparewntly being applied more strictly to our side than other teams.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Interview: Ryk's Sister Jean Marie
Nerves of Neethling
Many of us, when we think of swimming, have sunny memories, touched with globs of icecream, smears of sunblock and watermelon smiles. Swimming and childhood is mixed together, like silver bubbles in chlorine clear water. But for professional swimmers, a swimming pool is quite different. It’s cold and hard. There are lines on the bottom of the pool that they see in their dreams. It’s living and breathing in the sterile light of a bathroom (especially in winter). The body crushes through the water time-carving a spinal understanding about hydrodynamics. Each session ends with a coarse towel on skin. Above all swimming is about endurance: enduring the cold and coming out smiling and strong. What, I wonder, are the rewards? Jean Marie Neethling provides some insight into what it takes to become a fish.
By Nick van der Leek
Jean Marie ushers me into a sunny room. She has the lithe frame of a swimmer, slim but strong. I’ve seen her on TV, and swimming at the Virgin Active pool, and a few times I found myself swimming while a pink and white swordfish (that I took to be her) went flashing by in the lane beside me.
“Is that Jean Marie Neethling?” I asked a few times.
I’ve heard that she is already training 6 hours a day (in the holidays especially). She is just 16, but she is building up the necessary momentum now to be a world champion.
I suppose I already admire what she has achieved, and what she is doing. Her mom peeks in the door, greets me, and then closes the door to give us some privacy.
There’s a lot of blue in the room, and Jean Marie herself is wearing blue jeans and a blue Billabong jersey. These colors bring out the blue in her eyes, but when I look closer, her eyes aren’t blue. They have a cool grey steeliness that is in parts attractive and perhaps a little intimidating. I used to train with Ryk when he swam in Bloemfontein, and I’m surprised to see Ryk’s face flash at me through hers. I sit in a sunbeam and fumble in my bag for a tape recorder while a green parrot starts climbing up the white sleeve of my tracksuit.
I press RECORD and the red light illuminates.
JM: I learned to swim when I was a baby. My mom taught me, [she pokes a thumb over her shoulder towards the pool,] and my brother always took me in the water.”
NV: Did you enjoy it when you were little?
JM: I never liked swimming. The best part of swimming for me now is, like, the galas. Your hard work pays off. I didn’t really like going to training that much. But I learnt you can only swim well at a gala if you’ve trained hard. I came first in my first gala when I was 10 years old.
NV: How is it now, because now you’re training hard? Now you’re aware of the reality of swimming.
JM: Very much. My brother is a big help. He wants to keep me from making the same mistakes he made. I appreciate that, but it’s hard to listen to him – him not wanting me to make the same mistakes as him – but I think the only way to learn is from my own mistakes.
NV: I must say – because I swam – those mistakes can kill your spirit. Even if you’re willing to allow that. Do you often get sick?
JM: Yes. I do. Very often. I’m in hospital at least 3 times a year. This year I was lucky, I was in hospital only once.
NV: How come?
JM: It starts off as a cold, which turns into bronchitis, and then a lung infection.
NV: So how do you counter that?
JM: It’s very hard. I get mediglobin injections. It doesn’t really help. I drink so many vitamins, minerals…I can’t even count them all. I just have to keep myself from overtraining.
NV: I think – and it’s like that with the Ironman as well – in the end you’re training against yourself. You’re training against your limits.
JM: You want to get fit but then the harder you train, the weaker you seem to get [after a certain point].
NV: So the trick is-
JM: Knowing your limits.
NV: I think Ryk can help you a lot with that. In terms of knowing how to not make that mistake more often than you absolutely need to.
JM: Well, he’s made a lot of mistakes in overtraining [Ryk and Roland both took part in Melbourne with colds], and he just thinks, ‘the harder you work the better’. One of his biggest mistakes is overtraining. He pushes himself until he almost dies [laughs].
At Commonwealth he was very, very weak, and over trained, and he admitted that. And two weeks later he swam in the World Champs in Shanghai and he won three gold medals, and swam his best times.
NV: So, can you say you enjoy it?
JM: I shouldn’t hesitate answering that, but the part I enjoy is the galas. The training, at the moment, isn’t as fun at the moment as it could be, or should be. I don’t have anyone to race against.
NV: What about those guys I’ve seen you training with?
JM: No, they don’t do the same strokes I do. They don’t want to train as hard as I train, or according to my programme.
NV: So what’s your routine?
JM: In a perfect situation I’m allowed to go train in the mornings. In the holidays I swim 5 hours a day, and gym for an hour.
NV: And yesterday? [she cancelled the interview yesterday]
JM: Yesterday wasn’t a good day for me.
NV: Why do so many asthma sufferers swim?
JM: Swimming forces you to control your breathing, and asthma sufferers especially need to strengthen that aspect of their physiology.
NV: There seem to be a large amount of asthma suffers who are some of the world’s top swimmers…
JM: Some of them started swimming at a young age because of the asthma.
NV: Could there be a physiological benefit to having asthma and swimming?
JM: No, you have a handicap because you can’t stay underwater as long [as other swimmers] and you have to use a[n asthma] pump.
NV: [I smile] Maybe that’s what makes you swim faster!
NV: So tell me about this year.
JM: In January I was at a training camp in Germany, training for the Commonwealth Games. We had a gala in Berlin. And then in March I was in Melbourne.
NV: Do you feel you were…uh [I see something tugging the curtains] is that a monkey?
JM: [Giggles] Oh ja. We have a whole zoo here. It’s actually a marmoset.
NV: Oh. [Pause] Okay so the traveling: do you enjoy that aspect? Going overseas-
JM: [Emphatically] Yes! That’s the best part. Seeing the world, seeing people from different countries. The athletes village, the passion of the people…I loved the Commonwealth and the whole setup with the [athlete’s]village [at the Commonwealth Games]. It was amazing.
NV: Did you feel happy with how you did in Melbourne?
JM: Very happy. Especially with my medley [a race where all 4 strokes are employed]. I came sixth, and I broke the open SA record.
NV: So obviously a personal best and a South African women’s medley record.
JM: My breaststroke was a bit disappointing [in another separate race]. It wasn’t my best time. I came in 7th. I’m not as good in the shorter distances like the 100[m] Breastroke. I don’t have the speed and the strength yet.
NV: How old were you compared to the other swimmers?
JM: I was the youngest swimmer there. I was fifteen at the time, I’m sixteen now.
NV: How old are most of the swimmers.
JM: Most of the girls are 15-21. The guys are much older. There are no 15 year old guys at big meets [like the Commonwealth Games]. The youngest guys are 17 but then they’re not at their best.
NV: I remember when I swam there was a stage when the girls were-
JM: Better, yeah. [she says with a grin]
NV: Did you feel overwhelmed in Melbourne?
JM: Overwhelmed?
NV: I seem to remember reading that there was concern that you might be overwhelmed [being a 15 year old at the Commonwealth Games] by the size of everything there.
JM: My brother was worried that the moment would be too big for me, but it was great walking out there with the Australian crowd screaming.
NV: So when you were standing in front of the blocks. I know this can be very nerve-racking – were you OK?
JM: The medley was my first race. I was very nervous in the morning. I was 14th on their rankings, so I wasn’t even ranked to make the final. But I went into the final ranked 6. I was nervous before they told us to go out. When I stood in front of the blocks everything [the nervousness] just went. I focused on the swimming pool, my lane in front of me. I thought of nothing except my race. I remember when they announced me: ‘Lane 6, Jean Marie Neethling.’ I looked over at my brother and he just nodded and I remembered what he’d said to me: ‘Relax. It’s just another race.’ I just went out there and gave my best. I wasn’t nervous at all.
NV: I remember seeing you on TV and you looked really focused. You didn’t wave at the camera.
JM: Well, the waving at the camera thing…I didn’t want to lose focus. I knew I wasn’t going to do much; I wasn’t one of the big shots there. I was just there to do my time.
NV: Well someone who doesn’t wave at the camera is either very nervous or very focussed.
JM: I was focused.
NV: Do you find it easy to focus?
JM: No it’s easy for me to focus.
Her mom opens the door and offers us coffee. Jean Marie says, “Asseblief” and I also nod.
JM: What was I saying? I focus easily when I just go out and train. But my mom’s [Mrs Neethling coaches swimming in Bloemfontein] swimmer’s, they’re also my friends, they’re afraid of me when I go swimming. They don’t talk to me while I swim. I’m not myself when I swim because I focus. I don’t like being interrupted when I’m training.
NV: I knew from your cap, and that you were swimming pretty fast that this is probably Jean Marie Neethling swimming next to me.
JM: [Laughs]
NV: And I thought of saying: ‘Howz Ryk’ or ‘Howzit’ or something, but I got that feeling: don’t!
JM: Oh no! [Laughs] It’s not that bad! It’s when my teammates – because they want to talk and play around – I never play around when I train.
There’s a bit of silence as this sinks in.
**NV: Are you a perfectionist?
JM: I’m a big perfectionist. I’d rather not do something if I can’t do it perfectly, or as close to perfect as possible. That’s actually one of my downfalls. I don’t want to do anything if I can’t do it perfectly. That’s why I didn’t do athletics. I’m not going to do something just to do it. It must be done right.
NV: I think that [being a perfectionist] is key to being successful, probably in anything, whether sport or business. Lance Armstrong is the ultimate perfectionist.
JM: Ja.
NV: But the other side of it is: are you a perfectionist in everyday life, and what’s that like? Because that’s sometimes difficult for other people [dealing with a perfectionist].
JM: Sure. [Laughs]
NV: Because my girlfriend is a perfectionist and she sometimes drives me crazy. So the question is, can you be a perfectionist in one area of your life, and not in another area?
JM: I am. I used to be a big perfectionist in everything. My room, my cupboard, my clothes – everything had to be in a specific place. Now I’ve sort’ve moved all my focus to just swimming, and the smaller details on what will get me better and faster.
NV: Is that a family thing?
JM: My dad is a very big perfectionist. In everything but especially in his work.
NV: He’s a lawyer.
JM: Yes. And lawyer’s have to be.
NV: So what are your ambitions?
JM: At the moment I’m on the way to the world junior champs in Brazil. I hope to swim well there. I don’t like to set any specific time for myself, and I don’t expect to win. I take it as it goes. I just give my best, and I hope it goes well because I’ve trained hard for it.
Then slightly longer term: when I come back from Brazil I start training for world senior champs in Melbourne next year. And then 2008 is Beijing, with my brother. I have to qualify for that and I really hope I make it.
NV: I’m sure you will. So Jean Marie, at this point, what are you most proud of?
JM: I still really can’t believe I went to the Commonwealth Games. It’s one of the three biggest events in swimming [the Olympics and World Championships are the other two].
So I’ve achieved one, and I did well. I’m the best IM [individual medley] swimmer in South Africa.
NV: Nice feeling…
JM: Yes [smiles]. I can’t really believe it when I say that. So that’s…I’m really proud of that.
NV: And otherwise, other non-swimming achievements you’re happy about?
JM: I suppose getting an average of over 80% in the last exams. I’m barely in school so I’m happy with that.
NV: And after school?
JM: I plan to go to college in Tucson Arizona; the same place my brother went.
NV: What do you do in your free time?
JM: I don’t have much free time, but I like drawing. I’ve won a few prizes for my drawings.
NV: Such as?
JM: A R25 000 bursary to study art.
She shows me some of her paintings. They’ve vivid, bright and bursting with color.
NV: I spoke to someone who said she’s done drama with you.
JM: Who?
NV: I can’t remember her name.
JM: I actually love drama. That was actually one of my favourite things to do. The ideal job for me would be being an actress.
NV: Well, when you were on TV when you were in Melbourne. Maybe you should use those opportunities to showcase your acting talent.
JM: [Laughs] But my parents won’t really support me going for that sort of thing, unless I was sure of what I was doing, and I’d already made some money for myself [out of swimming].
NV: But that’s a whole different setup. Swimming is about discipline, whereas acting – not that it’s not about discipline, because you need discipline with everything – but there’s more of the vanity aspect involved, and that can make one disorientated. Doesn’t Ryk find that he’s very busy now with other things, I mean I’ve just heard him in a radio ad-
JM: He still has the focus on swimming. He does that very well; keeping a balance. But it does get a bit too much.
NV: Ryk said: to win you have to be the best in the history of your body. What’your mantra?
JM: Something he said to me recently: Nothing is impossible. It just takes a little longer. And: Nothing is hard if you love it.
NV: You were saying it was lonely. Don’t you find it quite wonderful that you’re like a baanbreker. When you’re in the pool, training, day to day, you’re the best person in the pool, and you’re on top of your game.
JM: I’m a bit unsure of myself. I don’t think: ‘Wow I’m great.’ Or: ‘Wow I’m on top of my game.’ Most of the time I’m thinking: ‘I can do better.’ And: ‘How can I do better?’
NV: Well to me you’re confident. You come across very determined.
JM: Yes, well inwardly I think I am.
NV: I noticed you had a funny tan. You even had it in Melbourne.
JM: Oh that’s a bikini tan. I love swimming in my bikini when I swim outside.
A few weeks later I see Jean Marie again. She’s healthy (she was sick during the interview) and recently back from Brazil. She tells me her races went ‘Okay. Under the circumstances, quite well.’ She placed seventh and improved her world ranking by one.
The sun is throwing white arrows into the water but the air still has that sharp bite of early spring. She jumps into water – cold as stone – and I see, this is her domain. I can see that she’s obviously cold, but as soon as she moves she’s comfortable. She has long fingers, and long limbs. Like everything about her, there’s a lot of talent imbedded in from fingers to toes and behind the sweep of her forehead. You can see it in the way she moves.
She floats in the water at one point, her fingers twirling a few dancing stars. There is something beautiful about her here, in her watery domain. I feel inklings of the simple power of youth when Jean Marie swords through the water. She leaves a billowing wake filled with stars.
For more on Jean-Marie Neethling, click here.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Nerves of Neethling
Nerves of Neethling
Many of us, when we think of swimming, have sunny memories, touched with globs of icecream, smears of sunblock and watermelon smiles. Swimming and childhood is mixed together, like silver bubbles in chlorine clear water. But for professional swimmers, a swimming pool is quite different. It’s cold and hard. There are lines on the bottom of the pool that they see in their dreams. It’s living and breathing in the sterile light of a bathroom (especially in winter). The body crushes through the water time-carving a spinal understanding about hydrodynamics. Each session ends with a coarse towel on skin. Above all swimming is about endurance: enduring the cold and coming out smiling and strong. What, I wonder, are the rewards? Jean Marie Neethling provides some insight into what it takes to become a fish.
By Nick van der Leek
Jean Marie ushers me into a sunny room. She has the lithe frame of a swimmer, slim but strong. I’ve seen her on TV, and swimming at the Virgin Active pool, and a few times I found myself swimming while a pink and white swordfish (that I took to be her) went flashing by in the lane beside me.
“Is that Jean Marie Neethling?” I asked a few times.
I’ve heard that she is already training 6 hours a day (in the holidays especially). She is just 16, but she is building up the necessary momentum now to be a world champion.
I suppose I already admire what she has achieved, and what she is doing. Her mom peeks in the door, greets me, and then closes the door to give us some privacy.
There’s a lot of blue in the room, and Jean Marie herself is wearing blue jeans and a blue Billabong jersey. These colors bring out the blue in her eyes, but when I look closer, her eyes aren’t blue. They have a cool grey steeliness that is in parts attractive and perhaps a little intimidating. I used to train with Ryk when he swam in Bloemfontein, and I’m surprised to see Ryk’s face flash at me through hers. I sit in a sunbeam and fumble in my bag for a tape recorder while a green parrot starts climbing up the white sleeve of my tracksuit.
I press RECORD and the red light illuminates.
JM: I learned to swim when I was a baby. My mom taught me, [she pokes a thumb over her shoulder towards the pool,] and my brother always took me in the water.”
NV: Did you enjoy it when you were little?
JM: I never liked swimming. The best part of swimming for me now is, like, the galas. Your hard work pays off. I didn’t really like going to training that much. But I learnt you can only swim well at a gala if you’ve trained hard. I came first in my first gala when I was 10 years old.
NV: How is it now, because now you’re training hard? Now you’re aware of the reality of swimming.
JM: Very much. My brother is a big help. He wants to keep me from making the same mistakes he made. I appreciate that, but it’s hard to listen to him – him not wanting me to make the same mistakes as him – but I think the only way to learn is from my own mistakes.
NV: I must say – because I swam – those mistakes can kill your spirit. Even if you’re willing to allow that. Do you often get sick?
JM: Yes. I do. Very often. I’m in hospital at least 3 times a year. This year I was lucky, I was in hospital only once.
NV: How come?
JM: It starts off as a cold, which turns into bronchitis, and then a lung infection.
NV: So how do you counter that?
JM: It’s very hard. I get mediglobin injections. It doesn’t really help. I drink so many vitamins, minerals…I can’t even count them all. I just have to keep myself from overtraining.
NV: I think – and it’s like that with the Ironman as well – in the end you’re training against yourself. You’re training against your limits.
JM: You want to get fit but then the harder you train, the weaker you seem to get [after a certain point].
NV: So the trick is-
JM: Knowing your limits.
NV: I think Ryk can help you a lot with that. In terms of knowing how to not make that mistake more often than you absolutely need to.
JM: Well, he’s made a lot of mistakes in overtraining [Ryk and Roland both took part in Melbourne with colds], and he just thinks, ‘the harder you work the better’. One of his biggest mistakes is overtraining. He pushes himself until he almost dies [laughs].
At Commonwealth he was very, very weak, and over trained, and he admitted that. And two weeks later he swam in the World Champs in Shanghai and he won three gold medals, and swam his best times.
NV: So, can you say you enjoy it?
JM: I shouldn’t hesitate answering that, but the part I enjoy is the galas. The training, at the moment, isn’t as fun at the moment as it could be, or should be. I don’t have anyone to race against.
NV: What about those guys I’ve seen you training with?
JM: No, they don’t do the same strokes I do. They don’t want to train as hard as I train, or according to my programme.
NV: So what’s your routine?
JM: In a perfect situation I’m allowed to go train in the mornings. In the holidays I swim 5 hours a day, and gym for an hour.
NV: And yesterday? [she cancelled the interview yesterday]
JM: Yesterday wasn’t a good day for me.
NV: Why do so many asthma sufferers swim?
JM: Swimming forces you to control your breathing, and asthma sufferers especially need to strengthen that aspect of their physiology.
NV: There seem to be a large amount of asthma suffers who are some of the world’s top swimmers…
JM: Some of them started swimming at a young age because of the asthma.
NV: Could there be a physiological benefit to having asthma and swimming?
JM: No, you have a handicap because you can’t stay underwater as long [as other swimmers] and you have to use a[n asthma] pump.
NV: [I smile] Maybe that’s what makes you swim faster!
NV: So tell me about this year.
JM: In January I was at a training camp in Germany, training for the Commonwealth Games. We had a gala in Berlin. And then in March I was in Melbourne.
NV: Do you feel you were…uh [I see something tugging the curtains] is that a monkey?
JM: [Giggles] Oh ja. We have a whole zoo here. It’s actually a marmoset.
NV: Oh. [Pause] Okay so the traveling: do you enjoy that aspect? Going overseas-
JM: [Emphatically] Yes! That’s the best part. Seeing the world, seeing people from different countries. The athletes village, the passion of the people…I loved the Commonwealth and the whole setup with the [athlete’s]village [at the Commonwealth Games]. It was amazing.
NV: Did you feel happy with how you did in Melbourne?
JM: Very happy. Especially with my medley [a race where all 4 strokes are employed]. I came sixth, and I broke the open SA record.
NV: So obviously a personal best and a South African women’s medley record.
JM: My breaststroke was a bit disappointing [in another separate race]. It wasn’t my best time. I came in 7th. I’m not as good in the shorter distances like the 100[m] Breastroke. I don’t have the speed and the strength yet.
NV: How old were you compared to the other swimmers?
JM: I was the youngest swimmer there. I was fifteen at the time, I’m sixteen now.
NV: How old are most of the swimmers.
JM: Most of the girls are 15-21. The guys are much older. There are no 15 year old guys at big meets [like the Commonwealth Games]. The youngest guys are 17 but then they’re not at their best.
NV: I remember when I swam there was a stage when the girls were-
JM: Better, yeah. [she says with a grin]
NV: Did you feel overwhelmed in Melbourne?
JM: Overwhelmed?
NV: I seem to remember reading that there was concern that you might be overwhelmed [being a 15 year old at the Commonwealth Games] by the size of everything there.
JM: My brother was worried that the moment would be too big for me, but it was great walking out there with the Australian crowd screaming.
NV: So when you were standing in front of the blocks. I know this can be very nerve-racking – were you OK?
JM: The medley was my first race. I was very nervous in the morning. I was 14th on their rankings, so I wasn’t even ranked to make the final. But I went into the final ranked 6. I was nervous before they told us to go out. When I stood in front of the blocks everything [the nervousness] just went. I focused on the swimming pool, my lane in front of me. I thought of nothing except my race. I remember when they announced me: ‘Lane 6, Jean Marie Neethling.’ I looked over at my brother and he just nodded and I remembered what he’d said to me: ‘Relax. It’s just another race.’ I just went out there and gave my best. I wasn’t nervous at all.
NV: I remember seeing you on TV and you looked really focused. You didn’t wave at the camera.
JM: Well, the waving at the camera thing…I didn’t want to lose focus. I knew I wasn’t going to do much; I wasn’t one of the big shots there. I was just there to do my time.
NV: Well someone who doesn’t wave at the camera is either very nervous or very focussed.
JM: I was focused.
NV: Do you find it easy to focus?
JM: No it’s easy for me to focus.
Her mom opens the door and offers us coffee. Jean Marie says, “Asseblief” and I also nod.
JM: What was I saying? I focus easily when I just go out and train. But my mom’s [Mrs Neethling coaches swimming in Bloemfontein] swimmer’s, they’re also my friends, they’re afraid of me when I go swimming. They don’t talk to me while I swim. I’m not myself when I swim because I focus. I don’t like being interrupted when I’m training.
NV: I knew from your cap, and that you were swimming pretty fast that this is probably Jean Marie Neethling swimming next to me.
JM: [Laughs]
NV: And I thought of saying: ‘Howz Ryk’ or ‘Howzit’ or something, but I got that feeling: don’t!
JM: Oh no! [Laughs] It’s not that bad! It’s when my teammates – because they want to talk and play around – I never play around when I train.
There’s a bit of silence as this sinks in.
**NV: Are you a perfectionist?
JM: I’m a big perfectionist. I’d rather not do something if I can’t do it perfectly, or as close to perfect as possible. That’s actually one of my downfalls. I don’t want to do anything if I can’t do it perfectly. That’s why I didn’t do athletics. I’m not going to do something just to do it. It must be done right.
NV: I think that [being a perfectionist] is key to being successful, probably in anything, whether sport or business. Lance Armstrong is the ultimate perfectionist.
JM: Ja.
NV: But the other side of it is: are you a perfectionist in everyday life, and what’s that like? Because that’s sometimes difficult for other people [dealing with a perfectionist].
JM: Sure. [Laughs]
NV: Because my girlfriend is a perfectionist and she sometimes drives me crazy. So the question is, can you be a perfectionist in one area of your life, and not in another area?
JM: I am. I used to be a big perfectionist in everything. My room, my cupboard, my clothes – everything had to be in a specific place. Now I’ve sort’ve moved all my focus to just swimming, and the smaller details on what will get me better and faster.
NV: Is that a family thing?
JM: My dad is a very big perfectionist. In everything but especially in his work.
NV: He’s a lawyer.
JM: Yes. And lawyer’s have to be.
NV: So what are your ambitions?
JM: At the moment I’m on the way to the world junior champs in Brazil. I hope to swim well there. I don’t like to set any specific time for myself, and I don’t expect to win. I take it as it goes. I just give my best, and I hope it goes well because I’ve trained hard for it.
Then slightly longer term: when I come back from Brazil I start training for world senior champs in Melbourne next year. And then 2008 is Beijing, with my brother. I have to qualify for that and I really hope I make it.
NV: I’m sure you will. So Jean Marie, at this point, what are you most proud of?
JM: I still really can’t believe I went to the Commonwealth Games. It’s one of the three biggest events in swimming [the Olympics and World Championships are the other two].
So I’ve achieved one, and I did well. I’m the best IM [individual medley] swimmer in South Africa.
NV: Nice feeling…
JM: Yes [smiles]. I can’t really believe it when I say that. So that’s…I’m really proud of that.
NV: And otherwise, other non-swimming achievements you’re happy about?
JM: I suppose getting an average of over 80% in the last exams. I’m barely in school so I’m happy with that.
NV: And after school?
JM: I plan to go to college in Tucson Arizona; the same place my brother went.
NV: What do you do in your free time?
JM: I don’t have much free time, but I like drawing. I’ve won a few prizes for my drawings.
NV: Such as?
JM: A R25 000 bursary to study art.
She shows me some of her paintings. They’ve vivid, bright and bursting with color.
NV: I spoke to someone who said she’s done drama with you.
JM: Who?
NV: I can’t remember her name.
JM: I actually love drama. That was actually one of my favourite things to do. The ideal job for me would be being an actress.
NV: Well, when you were on TV when you were in Melbourne. Maybe you should use those opportunities to showcase your acting talent.
JM: [Laughs] But my parents won’t really support me going for that sort of thing, unless I was sure of what I was doing, and I’d already made some money for myself [out of swimming].
NV: But that’s a whole different setup. Swimming is about discipline, whereas acting – not that it’s not about discipline, because you need discipline with everything – but there’s more of the vanity aspect involved, and that can make one disorientated. Doesn’t Ryk find that he’s very busy now with other things, I mean I’ve just heard him in a radio ad-
JM: He still has the focus on swimming. He does that very well; keeping a balance. But it does get a bit too much.
NV: Ryk said: to win you have to be the best in the history of your body. What’your mantra?
JM: Something he said to me recently: Nothing is impossible. It just takes a little longer. And: Nothing is hard if you love it.
NV: You were saying it was lonely. Don’t you find it quite wonderful that you’re like a baanbreker. When you’re in the pool, training, day to day, you’re the best person in the pool, and you’re on top of your game.
JM: I’m a bit unsure of myself. I don’t think: ‘Wow I’m great.’ Or: ‘Wow I’m on top of my game.’ Most of the time I’m thinking: ‘I can do better.’ And: ‘How can I do better?’
NV: Well to me you’re confident. You come across very determined.
JM: Yes, well inwardly I think I am.
NV: I noticed you had a funny tan. You even had it in Melbourne.
JM: Oh that’s a bikini tan. I love swimming in my bikini when I swim outside.
A few weeks later I see Jean Marie again. She’s healthy (she was sick during the interview) and recently back from Brazil. She tells me her races went ‘Okay. Under the circumstances, quite well.’ She placed seventh and improved her world ranking by one.
The sun is throwing white arrows into the water but the air still has that sharp bite of early spring. She jumps into water – cold as stone – and I see, this is her domain. I can see that she’s obviously cold, but as soon as she moves she’s comfortable. She has long fingers, and long limbs. Like everything about her, there’s a lot of talent imbedded in from fingers to toes and behind the sweep of her forehead. You can see it in the way she moves.
She floats in the water at one point, her fingers twirling a few dancing stars. There is something beautiful about her here, in her watery domain. I feel inklings of the simple power of youth when Jean Marie swords through the water. She leaves a billowing wake filled with stars.
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