Success is no guarantee of financial security, says Van der Burgh

Kevin Anderson and Louis Oosthuizen pay their own bills to travel the world and play tennis and golf. Do swimmers think they're too special to do the same?

"With bigger sports there is a lot more money involved," Cameron van der Burgh said.

"For Olympic sports it's difficult, because unless you're the Olympic champion there's not much money around."

And there may be a lot less, what with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) in line for massive funding cuts that could cripple the ability of codes like swimming to punch above their weight as they have done since the country's readmission to the international arena in the early 1990s.

Sascoc was allocated more than R100-million in the past year but there are fears that the new measures would see that figure dwindle to R5-million every two years.

That's awful news for swimmers, who have won more Olympic medals for South Africa in the modern era than any other sport except athletics: they have 14 each.

But success hasn't earned swimmers financial security.

"If Kevin Anderson or Louis Oosthuizen win a Major, their winnings are pretty much what a swimmer or an athlete will win in their entire career," Van der Burgh said.

"Top-level swimmers are on the same level as, say, a contracted Springbok."

Bok players make between R2-million to R5.5-million a year. Oosthuizen's career earnings are R344.5-million.

"Guys like Louis Oosthuizen don't even have to win; if they place they still walk away with millions of rand," Van der Burgh said.

"For us, if you don't win and you aren't the best in the world straight up, then you're not earning a salary."

Van der Burgh was the 2012 Olympic 100m breaststroke champion and the silver medallist in 2016, and is still the 100m and 50m short course world record holder.

"The guys who are young and bubbling under are the ones who really need the funding and they are not good enough yet to get it," Van der Burgh said.

"If you're stuck here, in the bubble of South Africa, you lose the reality of how good the rest of the world is and you can't up your game or learn from the best.

"We all work as hard as we can and you want to represent the country. But when you do your part and, unfortunately, politics gets involved in sport and doesn't come to the party, it is disheartening.

"We need the support of the government and the federations. Hopefully they can sort out their differences and find the funding to produce more Chads (Le Clos) and Camerons and Waydes (van Niekerk, the 400m Olympic champion and world record-holder)."

Van der Burgh left for Europe last Sunday to train and compete. He will return home for "two or three weeks" before going to the famed Gloria excellence centre in Turkey to round off his preparations for the World Championships in Hungary in July. Success there would be good for his bank balance. But how good?

In 2015, Van der Burgh claimed silver in the 100m and the 50m. He earned less than R200000 for both.

Also in 2015, Oosthuizen tied for 19th place in the US Masters. He pocketed more than R1.7-million.