'Male athlete of the 20th century' reflects on career

21 August 2011 - 02:51 By THABILE MAHLANGU
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
Gert Potgieter Picture: SIMPHIWE NKWALI
Gert Potgieter Picture: SIMPHIWE NKWALI

Three-time world 400m hurdles record holder Gert Potgieter had his physical conditioning to thank after he was involved in a car crash in Germany two weeks before the 1960 Rome Olympics.

He was the favourite in the Olympic 400m hurdles, but the crash left him fighting for his life.

"Watching the mistakes made by my rivals in the Olympic final from my hospital bed was the worst experience of my life," he recalls.

The doctor who treated Potgieterin Heidelberg told him that had it not been for his physical condition he wouldn't have survived.

"I realised I had been given a second chance and decided to put as much as I could back into society," Potgieter said, at 74 a warm and religious man.

Although his eyesight was badly affected in the accident, he recovered sufficiently to train for the decathlon and won the SA title in 1966.

Although steeped in SA sporting culture, having played two seasons of rugby at centre for Northern Transvaal in the 1950s with the legendary Tom van Vollenhoven, exposure to the Olympic movement was an enduring influence on Gert.

As a junior athlete his specialist events were the 100m and 200m, but he competed for the police, with whom he did his national service, in the 400m hurdles at the 1956 national championships because "I was instructed to do so".

He won his race and was picked for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as a 19-year-old.

With only one hurdle to clear in the final, excitement got the better of him as he found himself in medal contention and he stumbled and fell, finishing sixth.

The Olympic spirit, with its emphasis on the unity of humankind, left its mark on Potgieter and he revelled in meeting athletes from other countries, especially from Africa.

After winning the Empire (now Commonwealth) Games title in Cardiff in 1958, he was photographed at a meeting in then Rhodesia with his arm over the shoulder of Josh Culbreath, an African-American athlete. Such contact was frowned upon in apartheid SA and it earned him a reprimand from the commissioner of police, who told him "he was embarrassing the country".

Potgieter's efforts over the subsequent 30 years to establish a non-racial Olympic academy met with an equally hostile response from successive National Party sports ministers.

A disagreement on the issue with the late Piet Koornhof led to Potgieter being expelled from the Koornhof residence.

While his vision of an Olympic academy remains a dream, Potgieter promotes the Olympic ethos through Altus-Sport, an organisation he founded in 1995 to promote the spirit of sport, friendship and peace.

On the present SA athletics scene, he believes more qualified coaches are vital. "Coaches and managers are always pushing athletes to make more money and neglecting their well-being in the process".

Potgieter is an admirer of 400m hurdles record holder LJ van Zyl, noting "his movement over the hurdles is very efficient and fluid".

"It was my coach, Jos Sirakis, who pioneered the 14-stride pattern still used by many top 400m hurdlers today," he says.

Voted South Africa's male athlete of the 20th century, Potgieter embodies what is best in South African sport.

Potgieter is married to former West German Olympic long jumper Renate Junker. They have three children and seven grandchildren, and the disappointment of Rome is far behind him.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now