Lotto gives our sports stars a kick in the teeth

17 May 2017 - 09:10 By The Times Editorial
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With 10 medals, the Rio Olympics was South Africa's most successful Games in 96 years. And by way of reward, the country's stars have been kicked in the teeth twice this year.

The latest is a policy change by the National Lotteries Commission which will see the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, the umbrella body that takes national teams to multisport events, have its funding cut from in excess of R100-million a year to R5-million for two years.

That would be about enough to cover the salary of Sascoc's CEO, Tubby Reddy, or the board's allowances. Not both.

But the casualty we care about will be the Olympic and Paralympic athletes, who would no longer receive funding from Sascoc.

SA sport enjoyed unprecedented funding from the national lottery in the build-up to London 2012, and with three golds among six medals those were the country's most successful Games since readmission.

Then came Rio.

That was SA's seventh Games back after missing seven during isolation. We had finally caught up with the world.

And there was the promise of even more glory down the line, with R1-billion earmarked for athlete development as part of the Durban 2022 Commonwealth Games bid.

But we threw that away, and now athletes could lose their existing funding.

You won't see the results immediately. Tokyo 2020 could still be good for SA, given the rise of track and field where individual athletes have sponsors.

But if there's no money to invest in the upcoming talent, it's going to be difficult for them to persevere.

South Africa may have more pressing problems than sport. But it shouldn't be discarded either - not only can sport lift the morale of a nation, it offers even the poorest a chance to reach the top.

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