Olympics day in history: Elana Meyer wins 10,000m silver medal in Barcelona

1948 — Vic Toweel, who would go on to become South Africa’s only undisputed world boxing champion, is rated as one of South Africa’s best medal chances at the London Olympics. But he loses a controversial decision to Arnoldo Parés of Argentina in the first round of the bantamweight competition. Had Toweel won, his next opponent would have been Australia’s Jimmy Carruthers, who later handed the South African his first professional defeat while relieving him of his crown. Carruthers beat Parés, but he was unfit to fight Hungarian Tibor Csik in the next round. Csik went on to win the bantamweight gold.

1977 — Shaun Tomson finishes joint sixth alongside compatriot Gavin Rudolph at the tour event in Rio de Janeiro, but it’s enough to push him back to the top of the surfing rankings, dislodging Australian Rabbit Bartholomew. The result rocketed Rudolph from 20th to sixth overall.

1992 — South Africa enjoys a silver return to the Olympics when they bag two medals at the Barcelona games. Tennis players Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval reached the final of the men’s doubles competition where they were beaten in four sets in the final by Germans Boris Becker and Michael Stich. That evening, distance star Elana Meyer finished second in the women’s 10,000m behind Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu.

2016 — Cameron van der Burgh wins his second Olympic medal as he takes silver in the 100m breaststroke behind Englishman Adam Peaty at the Rio Games. Peaty won in a 57.13 sec world record with Van der Burgh touching in 58.69, ahead of third-placed American Cody Miller in 58.87.

2017 — Caster Semenya storms through on the last lap to snatch the world championship 1,500m bronze from Briton Laura Muir by just seven-hundredths of a second in London. After a slow tactical race that offered Semenya a sniff of a chance, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon won in 4 min 02.59 sec, ahead of American Jennifer Simpson (4:02.76), Semenya (4:02.90) and then Muir (4:02.97).

2022 — Ashleigh Buhai becomes the second South African woman to win a golf major when she captures the Women’s British Open crown in a dramatic four-hole playoff. She blew a five-shot overnight lead as she carded a four-over-par 75 in the final round, largely because of a triple bogey on the par-four 15th at Muirfield, to end level with In Gee Chun of South Korea, who had won three major titles. But Buhai, who had won three times on the Ladies’ European Tour and was ranked 84th in the world, triumphed on the fourth time of playing the par-four 18th hole. Both had gone par, bogey, par in the playoff before Buhai carded a par after splashing out a bunker and nailing the putt for victory.