Our reigning Olympic champions have the firepower to break a century-long curse and win more gold in Rio, writes David Isaacson An Olympic jinx has hung over South Africa for more than a century. This curse has afflicted every one of the country's 22 Olympic champions, who won a combined 20 gold medals from London 1908 to Athens 2004.Not a single one retained their title or won another Olympic gold at a subsequent Games.But Team South Africa's talented class of 2016 has the best chance yet of breaking the 104-year hoodoo at the Rio Games, which start on Friday night.story_article_left1Swimmers Cameron van der Burgh and Chad Le Clos and rowers John Smith and James Thompson - all gold medallists at London 2012 - will have six attempts to bury this ghost.Van der Burgh and Le Clos are the only two able to retain titles, in the 100m breaststroke and 200m butterfly respectively.The rowers have migrated from the lightweight four to the lightweight double sculls, but they are still in the gold medal hunt.Van der Burgh is slated to get the first crack - in the 100m breaststroke final next Sunday night (the evening session begins at 3am on Monday, South African time).Le Clos is expected to make his first medal charge in the 200m freestyle final on Monday night next week, and will attempt to defend his 200m 'fly title the following evening.On Friday, Smith and Thompson are scheduled to race for gold in the lightweight men's double sculls in the morning, and that night Le Clos will try to upgrade his 100m butterfly silver from four years ago to gold.On Saturday night, Van der Burgh and Le Clos will hope to have another podium attempt in the 4x100m medley relay, although gold might be a long shot.Penny Heyns, South Africa's star of Atlanta 1996, the only woman to win the Olympic 100m and 200m breaststroke double, pointed out that South Africa was still catching up with the rest of the world when it came to Games milestones.Retaining Olympic gold medals is commonplace for many countries."We've seen success from other countries being able to repeat, but then they have that experience, having been in the Olympics so many years and groomed athletes more successfully than we have," said Heyns, who added the 100m breaststroke bronze at Sydney 2000.block_quotes_start It's not like you don't want to work as hard, it's just little things like making sure you get enough rest. That's a big thing. block_quotes_endThere are dozens of multiple gold medallists, such as British rower Steve Redgrave across five Games, athletics superstar Carl Lewis across four, and swimmer Michael Phelps, who will be in Rio looking to stretch his run to four.Fencer Aladár Gerevich of Hungary holds the record for the longest run - six Olympic golds from six Games, from 1932 to 1960.More than one generation of South Africans missed out on the Olympics as a result of the isolation - lasting 32 years and seven Games - that was enforced because of apartheid."I think we are catching up," said Heyns, confident the curse will end sooner rather than later. "Hopefully we'll see some change in that area."Ryk Neethling, a member of the 4x100m freestyle relay team that stunned the world at Athens 2004, remembers how winning gold made training tougher."Having struggled so much for [financial] support, you also want to capitalise on the opportunities a gold medal gives you," he said.full_story_image_hright1It was a delicate balance between paid commitments and training. "It's not like you don't want to work as hard, it's just little things like making sure you get enough rest. That's a big thing."You still go to all the training, but instead of going home and sleeping, now you have to go straight from the pool to an event."One event won't kill you, but if you do it eight or 10 times a month, that's a fraction of a percentage point that makes a difference at the end of a day."Neethling, Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns and Darian Townsend went 0.51 of a second faster at Beijing 2008 than their 3min 13.17sec world record four years earlier, yet slipped from first place to seventh.The margins are tight. "I think Chad and I both have our work cut out for us this year," said Van der Burgh."It's going to be like how Chad beat Phelps last time," he said. Le Clos, then unknown on the world stage, clinched victory by five-hundredths of a second."Either he and I will both just get it, or we'll just be on the other side of it," Van der Burgh said.block_quotes_start Now that they have walked the yellow brick road, they know when they've strayed, and that brings added stress block_quotes_endLe Clos agreed. "It's very hard. From Beijing 2008 to the last Olympics there were no swimmers who retained their titles apart from Phelps."There's a real chance I could come away with two silvers, three silvers."I'll be very upset if I don't win at least one race."Le Clos is also eyeing a different golden first for South Africa in Rio - no reigning South African world champion in any sport has won an Olympic title in the same event.There have been only two to try - high jumpers Hestrie Cloete and Jacques Freitag at Athens 2004, but Cloete had to settle for silver while injury-hit Freitag failed to get past the qualifying round.Le Clos, the two-time 100m butterfly world champion, is the country's first swimmer to try to add a Games crown.World 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk will look to do the same on the track.With Team SA boasting other powerhouses such as Caster Semenya, long jumper Ruswahl Samaai, three other strong rowing crews, canoeist Bridgitte Hartley and others, there's a good chance this could be the greatest South African outfit since readmission, if not of all time.story_article_right2There are 18 prospects in total, which is likely to translate into eight to 11 medals. Six is South Africa's best since readmission; 10 is the standard from 1920 and 1952.Gold is the ultimate, but a repeat gold is so much harder.In the build-up to 2012, Le Clos, Van der Burgh and the rowers didn't know if they were on the right path, and that ignorance meant they couldn't stress out about it.Now that they have walked the yellow brick road, they know when they've strayed, and that brings added stress."By knowing where the standard is, you often know when you're not at it - and that can be quite hard," said rower Thompson, who won the 2014 world championship with Smith. "But when you're young and naive, you can bull***t yourself a bit more."Sceptics might argue that only four of South Africa's six golden repeat shots are realistic - Van der Burgh in the 100m breaststroke, Le Clos in the two butterfly races, and the scullers - but even then, that's still more chances than South Africa has had before.The country's greatest golden performance came at Stockholm 1912, with a total of four gold, but World War 1 robbed hopefuls of a possible repeat with no Games in 1916.The fact is that most of South Africa's 16 gold medallists in the pre-isolation years didn't return, including the six boxing champions, who made themselves ineligible by turning professional.Tennis player Charles Winslow, the country's first multiple medallist with two golds in the singles and doubles in 1912, was back in action at Antwerp 1920, taking bronze in the singles behind victorious countryman Louis Raymond.Raymond, athlete Bevil Rudd and boxer Clarence Walker bagged three golds that year, and it would take another 76 years for South Africa to capture three gold medals again - Heyns's double and Josia Thugwane in the marathon.Heyns spoke about the choices she made ahead of Sydney 2000 that might have cost her victory.mini_story_image_vleft2"I think it just comes down to making wrong decisions and coupled with keeping the wrong people happy," she said, recalling how she took time off training to spend time with the family of a teammate who was dying in hospital after a car accident."And then I missed going to the world short course because I chose to instead go to the memorial because they asked me to speak there. Before all of that happened, I was doing faster times in training than I had done the previous year [during which she broke 11 world records]. I didn't realise it would affect my performances down the line."It also occurred to Heyns only this year that she had not used a custom-made suit in Sydney. "For some reason - I never know why, I think because my legs were tired at the Olympics - I chose not to race in that suit. I chose to race in a regular suit, and the others raced in that suit. The race was so close I'll never know ... it could have been worse or it could have been better."She went out hard, hitting the turn inside world-record pace. "But then I'd say the last 5m didn't quite play the game. It came down to the touch."Thugwane said he was targeted in Sydney. "In Atlanta nobody knew me. But the next Olympics everybody followed me and that upset me. I tried going out fast. After 22km the body didn't respond." He came 20th.Only two marathon men have retained titles over the 27 Summer Olympics: Ethiopian Abebe Bikila at Tokyo 1964 and Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany at Moscow 1980.History may not favour South Africa, but that's probably unimportant.What matters is that the 2016 team is filled with stars seeking their destiny."I don't worry too much about anyone else, or statistics," said Le Clos. "I've broken records my whole life."isaacsond@sundaytimes.co.za..