In his first Olympic Games, Bradley Nkoana had to avoid temptations of all kinds to be ready to perform at the highest level for Team SA.
One of these temptations in the athletes village at the Paris Olympics for the 19-year-old Nkoana turned out to be sushi.
With everything laid on thick for the athletes in the village, the SA men’s 4x100m relay team of Nkoana, Bayanda Walaza, Shaun Maswanganyi and Akani Simbine had to be disciplined at all times. The SA team stunned some of the favourites in the relay final to earn a silver medal, behind winners Canada.
They did that by ignoring all distractions and focussing on keeping themselves ready whenever they were called upon. In fact, Nkoana and Walaza would not have been certain before the Olympics that they would be entrusted to take their places in the final team, which carried the flag for Team SA in one of the highest profile events on the track.
The crowd at OR Tambo Airport cheers for matric pupil and Olympic silver medalist Bayanda Walaza, who was one of the four sprinters who helped Team SA secure silver in the Men's 100 4x100 metre relay final.#Olympics2024 #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/yIDt3kPSJf
— IOL News (@IOL) August 13, 2024
‘I wanted to do a lot of things’
“It was crazy, especially being in the Olympic village because everything was free. I wanted to eat sushi, but I know I’m allergic to fish,” said Nkoana.
“I wanted to do a lot of things, but I knew I needed to keep my body healthy and get the team into the final and come home with a medal.”
Much was made of the fact that the USA fluffed a baton change in the final, before they were later disqualified.
Whether the USA were disqualified or not, Nkoana said his team were confident about finishing on the podium.
“On the US team, what happened with them — happened with them. I believe we were going to get a medal whether they were in front of us or behind us. I went with the mentality that I had to pass the baton to AK (Akani) still with the chance to medal, and I did that. I’m very proud of myself for coming a long way.”
The youngest member of the relay team, schoolboy Walaza had to use all his mental strength to not be overawed by the occasion.
“My experience [in Paris] … it was nice. At first I thought I was not going to run because I was the youngest and there are stronger people [in the team]. For me it was a vacation. As soon as I realised I was in the team, it shocked me because I was eating ice cream every day,” said Walaza.
“There was a point where I was really scared to run. I thought, there’s [Christian] ‘Coleman’ and all of these people. The messages that I got from people were inspiring. We’d also like to thank Sascoc for giving us the time to practise these relays, and the handovers.”
Walaza’s new-found confidence showed when he arrived back in South Africa to a heroes welcome at OR Tambo on Tuesday.
The teenager came bounding out as he worked the crowd into a frenzy, who came to catch a glimpse of the team. In fact, Walaza stole the show as the young crowd responded to the sprinter with feverish excitement.
It was clear that Walaza was doing his best to soak up the atmosphere, and who can blame him?