Has Cameron lost his killer instinct

30 July 2014 - 12:54 By David Isaacson
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
David Isaacson
David Isaacson

Cameron van der Burgh says he is still planning to compete at the Rio Olympics in 2016, but I have a hard time believing him.

That’s not because I think the swimming star is trying to be deceptive. Far from it — he is one of the most honest and honourable sports stars on the planet.

If anything, he’s too honest.

After he had won the 100m breaststroke gold medal in a world record at the 2012 Olympics in London, beating Australian Christian Sprenger, the Aussie media went after him because he had used two dolphin kicks, instead of the legal one, coming off the turn.

Van der Burgh admitted to the transgression, saying it was a rule that was never policed and pointing out he wasn’t the only guilty one.

In fact, he counted at least six swimmers doing it at the Australian Championships earlier this year. 

In Glasgow on Monday night Van der Burgh avenged his 100m breaststroke defeat to Adam Peaty by edging the young Englishman in the 50m race.

He should have reacted like a boxer who had just knocked out his nemesis, shouting loudly that he’s back, that he’s the champ.

Instead he fought back the tears as he laid bare his soul, speaking as if he was on the verge of quitting.

“I used to come out with this fire in my chest and it just disappeared,” he said. “And now it’s just finding that love again. If you don’t love the sport you’ve got to walk away from it.”

There was one phrase he used that struck me with a sad familiarity: “I know physically I still have it.”

That comment took me back nearly 14 years, when another South African breaststroker was top of the world.

Penny Heyns had gone to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 as the defending champion in the 100m and 200m, and, despite an incredible run of 11 world records in the second half of 1999, she hit a slump early in 2000.

She was suddenly not invincible. That she even sneaked a bronze in the 100m spoke volumes about her courage and talent.

But by the time she dived in for the 200m heats, she was spent.

Her competitive spirit had departed.

Heyns looked as if she was taking a dip on a hot summer’s day, finishing second from last in a time too slow to qualify for the semifinals.

In a tearful interview immediately afterwards she told journalists she was done.

Sport offers glorious highs, but it also delivers despair to the fading stars who realise, one day, that they no longer love what they do.

Heyns made it official a few months later when she confirmed her retirement. I still remember her saying that, physically, she was capable of going on.

That’s why Van der Burgh’s comment resonated.

The difference is that he says he will carry on.

“At least tonight I found a bit of that [fire]. Now it’s another 12 months I can work on it, I’m motivated again,” he said.

I really hope that’s true — for Van der Burgh, and for South Africa’s medal aspirations in 2016.

As he spoke on Monday, we could feel Van der Burgh’s pain as he spoke about how he was lacking that killer instinct.

But I couldn’t detect his drive, which was in abundance in the build-up to London.

Van der Burgh wasn’t trying to convince us he had rediscovered it; he was trying to convince himself.

And I hope he does.

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