Keep South Africa's talent pool topped up

Sometimes we in South Africa do get it right.

Ato Boldon, the former sprint star from Trinidad & Tobago, was addressing sports types at the inaugural Global Athletics Conference in Durban last week.

At one point during his speech, he referred to the US college sport system, which has helped to produce many Olympic medallists from countries all around the world.

But then he laid bare the hard statistics.

For every medallist from one country, there were 50 other athletes from the same country who disappeared in the system.

The US colleges, he explained, wanted athletes to fit their needs, and, as a result, potential talents were often wasted or burnt out. The best option for athletes, Boldon believes, is a homegrown solution.

At that point I looked to the person sitting next to me - local swimming coach Graham Hill, who so far has produced two Olympic medallists - Chad le Clos and Terence Parkin - at his pool in Pinetown.

Hill nodded in agreement, and mouthed the name of Cameron van der Burgh, who trains in Pretoria.

Then there are SA's world champion rowers, coached in Pretoria by Roger Barrow, and canoeist Bridgitte Hartley, another largely homegrown talent.

In track and field, hurdler Cornel Fredericks, long-jumper Khotso Mokoena and 400m runner Wayde van Niekerk have all come through the local ranks.

The US is home to some rising SA heroes, like sprinter Anaso Jobodwana and swimmer Sebastien Rousseau.

It's been a while since SA swimming was dominated by stars from the US college system, such as Penny Heyns, Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling.

SA is clearly doing something right, and the frightening thing is that this level of excellence is not being sufficiently recognised.

There is a national sports plan in place, a promising document that is easy to find on the internet, but not so much in the real world.

Funding is on the decline. Since the London Games in 2012, the Lotto has dramatically cut its funding to national sports federations.

How was that part of the national sports plan?

Most of the swimmers who will compete at the World Short Course Championships in Doha next month have been asked to find R15000 towards the cost of their trip.

Boldon also spoke about the Jamaican tradition of sprinting, explaining it was the result of a strong long-standing school system.

That sounds familiar - the strength of SA rugby and cricket is based on schools, and, to some degree, so too are athletics and rowing.

We are halfway there, surely?

But Boldon's address highlighted the one problem that permeates South African sport.

Admittedly, Boldon is one of those rarely gifted people.

The former sprinter picked up four Olympic medals and became the 200m world champion in 1997, but as an orator he's even more impressive.

He spoke for 40 minutes and, quite honestly, he could have spent another 40 minutes talking and nobody would have minded.

Boldon was a pleasure to listen to, which is more than I can say about the majority of sports administrators and sports politicians I've heard over the years.

Too many like to drone on and on and on, subjecting their listeners to something akin to drip torture.

They could all learn from a mantra along the lines of "say less and do more".