Neethling backs Durban World Cup
Brad Morgan
17 November 2004
In December 2003 Durban hosted a World Cup swimming event for the first time, with competitors from 17 countries participating in an event that proved to be a roaring success.
Two of the leading performers were South Africa's Ryk Neethling and Roland Schoeman. Neethling claimed two wins and four second places, while Schoeman shone with three wins and three seconds. In total, they were responsible for 12 of the 31 medals won by South African swimmers.
Now, nearly a year later, Schoeman and Neethling return to the Durban World Cup as Olympic champions. The Arizona University sprint stars led the South African 4x100m freestyle relay team to a stunning gold medal victory in world record time in Athens, and they’re keen to use that success to help grow the sport in South Africa.
Lasting support
Neethling was on hand
in Durban recently for the media launch of the 2004/2005 FINA Swimming World Cup series, which involves eight meets on five continents and kicks off at the Kings Park Aquatic complex in Durban on 19 November.
Addressing the gathered media, Neethling said he was in the coastal city to do his bit to promote swimming in South Africa. He also promised that as long as Durban hosted a World Cup swimming event he would participate in it.
Questioned about South Africa's first World Cup event in 2003, Neethling said it rated right near the top of the World Cup swimming series competitions, if not at number one.
After the official launch of the 2004 edition of the World Cup short course meeting, I was lucky enough to have a short chat with South Africa's Olympic hero.
Neethling, who hails from Bloemfontein, attended school at Grey College, arguably South Africa's foremost sporting school. I asked him what influence Grey, and his club Bloemfontein Seals, had in setting
him up for future success.
'Work hard, be modest'
He explained: "As you probably know, Grey College has produced some very good sportsmen, so it's pretty much a culture. 'You can do it, work hard, be modest', that kind of thing, and I think that's what got me to where I am today."
"Bloemfontein Seals laid a good foundation", Neethling went on. "I trained very long hours, and lots of mileage. So there was a very good foundation, and obviously there's Pietermaritzburg Seals for the past six years. So they've helped me a lot too."
The drive towards Olympic success was there from a very young age, says Neethling: "I always had the Olympic dream when I was younger. I also had a dream to play rugby for the Springboks."
"When I was about 16 I quit playing rugby and I just went all out for swimming, and I just had this mindset of, 'If you're going to do it, you're going to do it right and take it as far as you can take it'. I was
fortunate to get a good education in America too. So I didn't lose out on anything."
Remarkable change
Now, having achieved the Olympic dream, Neethling says it is incredible to see how that victory in Athens has been embraced by South Africans.
"It's been a huge change. I mean everywhere I go people recognise me. It doesn't matter - the car guards in Cape Town or Bloemfontein or Durban - people recognise me, and it's great.
"We swam that race for everyone in South Africa, so they can believe we can be the best in the world if we work hard enough. It's been awesome, and we just want to keep it going, I think we have a good story to tell. We're not finished yet."
Looking ahead to the Swimming World Cup in Durban, Neethling recognises the importance of capitalising on the success of South Africa's swimmers at the Olympics.
"It is very important. I was training in Athens, already training for this World Cup, so I know it's
very important, and I think while swimming is in the newspapers and on TV it's important that we show the country again, in our backyards, so people can come see and hopefully we can get a full stadium, four or five thousand people, to see the guys that won the Olympic medal for them.
"When we were training, and when we competed, we did it with the mindset of, 'We're doing this for the whole country', so we’d like the country to come watch us."
He says he and Schoeman, the two most decorated members of the world record breaking quartet, will be in action in Durban. Lyndon Ferns and Darian Townsend have headed to the United States to begin university studies there. Ferns will be studying at Arizona University, where both Schoeman and Neethling made their mark.
Olympic relay rematch?
Organisers of the Durban event are hoping to create a special bonus for spectators that would boost the competition immensely. They're attempting to stage a
rematch of the Olympic 4x100m freestyle relay by getting the USA and Australia to front up to South Africa again.
Neethling says South Africa's win over the two swimming powers in Athens had different effects on the opposition. He says the Americans were stunned, but gracious in defeat. The Australians, with the exception of the great Ian Thorpe, didn't take the defeat nearly as well.
Having realised his Olympic dream, Neethling says there are plenty of goals he can still aim at: "There's lot of things that you can keep improving. My mindset was always, going into this Olympics, that even if I get fourth - which I got fourth - or ninth, or whatever, if I did my best time I would have been happy.
"I was fortunate to get a gold medal and a world record, but I still think that I can swim faster, and that's pretty much the pursuit that I am after, to get that perfect race or the ultimate that my body can go. That's what I'm working for.
"I have missed an
individual Olympic medal a couple of times, so I'll be training for 2008, and hopefully I can get my own medal."
You won't be alone in that hope, Ryk.
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