Veteran Ernst van Dyk has warned South Africa's Paralympic medal haul could drop even further unless disabled sport enjoys better funding and development. Team SA returned from the Rio showpiece this week with 17 medals, its lowest haul since its eight of Barcelona 1992, when the wheelchair star made his debut.For the first time since then, Team SA failed to make the top 20 on the medals table and was ousted as the top African nation, ending 22nd below Nigeria (17th) and Tunisia (21st)."There's a huge lack of support and that in the future is going to catch up with us," said Van Dyk, winner of one of SA's seven gold medals in Rio."That's going to take the 17 medals we got now to maybe even 10 medals by the next Games unless serious investment is made."story_article_left1The 13 Paralympians who won SA's silverware in Rio, and their coaches, enjoyed a lucrative return at OR Tambo International Airport this week, receiving a combined R6.45-million from the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) and Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula.The money thrown at them was about R2-million more than that given to South Africa's top 30-odd disabled athletes through Sascoc's Operation Excellence funding programme in any single financial year of this Paralympic cycle.According to the Sascoc annual reports from 2012 until last year, they paid around R4.5-million to the disabled athletes each year.To call the reward an incentive is misleading since this was confirmed only in May, too late to spark inspiration."A lot of the old [athletes] are fading out," added 43-year-old Van Dyk, who competes in the Berlin Marathon today."I'm fading out. There's quite a few of us heading into retirement. There's only one or two new stars who came through in Rio now."There is reason for concern."The federations will have to step up their structures, their support. The corporates would have to come to the party."You need to get a programme going. It's almost too late now for 2020, you might have to look for 2024 to try to get back to where we were in the past."Some argue that the drop in SA's medal haul can be mathematically explained by the retirement of swimmers Natalie du Toit and Charl Bouwer, as well as the imprisonment of Oscar Pistorius.block_quotes_start The level of competition has drastically increased since Barcelona. It's way more difficult to win a medal block_quotes_endThey won a combined 10 medals at London 2012, which would have lifted SA's tally to 27 in Rio, just two fewer than four years ago.But it doesn't explain how, in the days preceding Du Toit, Pistorius and Bouwer, Team SA won 38 medals at Sydney 2000 and 28 at Atlanta 1996.Suzanne Ferreira, who coached five athletes to medals in Rio, said rivalry was stiffer. "The level of competition has drastically increased since Barcelona. It's way more difficult to win a medal."Swimmer Kevin Paul's winning margin in the 100m breaststroke at Beijing 2008 was a second; he was nearly four seconds faster for his gold in Rio, but the gap had shrunk to less than a quarter-of-a-second.Pistorius's 46.68sec Paralympic record for the 400m at London 2012 was 3.46 seconds better than the runner-up then, but it would have won only bronze in Rio.Ferreira said disabled athletes were being lost in the transition from juniors to seniors.full_story_image_hright1"Special needs schools are our biggest feeding systems. From 18, when they leave the school, what happens to those athletes? I think that's where we've got the challenge."There's not a lot of senior clubs that [cater to] these athletes and I think that's a system we need to look at, how to empower coaches and clubs to grow the participation."Ferreira works for South Africa's most successful disabled sports club - Maties, which accounted for 11 of the nation's medals in Rio."We're strong in certain sports, that's what we can accommodate."[SA] definitely needs to have a stronger senior structure."sports@timesmedia.co.za..