“Cosatu demands that the match on Saturday be aired live on SABC or at least be flighted 30 minutes later, which would not cost any money or undermine Super Sport’s rights,” Cosatu’s Western Cape provincial secretary, Malvern de Bruyn, said in a statement on Friday.

He said showing the match only on Multichoice’s DSTV platform would shut out working class families who cannot afford satellite television.

“This is a sad day for working class families and a sad indictment to the government of national unity. This represents a failure of public policy to respond to public priority issues that foster national unity,” De Bruyn said.

He accused McKenzie of having “presented a gimmick” regarding the airing of last Saturday’s Springbok’s match against New Zealand on SABC and that he had “a real begging bowl approach to those who benefit and control South African sports”.

“It again shows that greed for money is put ahead of the interest of all South Africans and that politicians regardless of party bow at the altar of greed,” he said.

“Cosatu Western Cape calls on the government, in particular President Cyril Ramaphosa, to urgently intervene in this crisis to ensure that at least the games that the Springboks are playing are broadcast live on SABC.”

A spokesperson for Multichoice, the owner of the rights to air the rugby matches, said “the broadcast of the Springboks vs All Blacks match on SABC on 31 August was a once-off event, to celebrate 30 Years of Democracy”.

McKenzie’s spokesperson had not responded to questions by the time of publication. The presidency could also not be reached for comment.

SABC spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo confirmed on Saturday that the SABC will not televise the rugby match between South Africa and New Zealand from Cape Town.

“The SABC had only reached an agreement with Supersport for last week’s match in commemoration of 30 years of Democracy. The SABC will only broadcast today’s match on its African Language radio Stations,  RSG and Radio 2000,” Seapolelo said.

“It must be noted that the SABC is committed to broadcasting sports of national interest and will always strive to ensure that the millions of South Africans are not left out, however it is also not always guaranteed that the SABC will secure these rights due to numerous factors including the exorbitant costs of the acquisition of sub licensing and the commercial imperative of the rights holders,” she said.

This story was updated with comments from the SABC.

Tola clocked an Olympic record of 2hr 06min 26sec for victory, finishing 21 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, whose silver marked an upgrade from his bronze garnered at the Covid-hit Tokyo Games three years ago.

Kenya’s Benson Kipruto, winner of Tokyo, Boston and Chicago marathons in recent years, rounded out the podium, a further 13sec adrift.

“Thank you, Paris!” said Tola, the 2016 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist who will be 33 on Sunday.

“I’m happy today, I was 2022 world champion and now I’m Olympic champion.

“It’s the greatest day in my life. This was my goal.”

Tola, a late call-up to replace injury-hit Sisay Lemma, won gold at the 2022 world championships in Eugene.

More recently he finished third at last year’s London Marathon and won the New York City Marathon in a course record of 2:04.58.

Former world record holder Kipchoge won golds in the 2016 Rio Games and in Tokyo in 2021, but the 39-year-old Kenyan pulled up late in the race.

He withdrew just after the 30km mark, at which point he was 71st, more than eight minutes off the pace.

It put an end to his ambitious attempt at a third consecutive win.

In scenes witnessed by an AFP reporter in the crowd, Kipchoge turned to fans and handed over his shoes, bib and socks to supporters, receiving a rapturous reception.

Tola’s teammate Kenenisa Bekele, who won three Olympic and five world golds over 5000m and 10,000m before turning to the marathon, finished 39th in 2:12.24.

The 42km-long marathon course headed out of central Paris to Versailles, mimicking a key moment from the French Revolution: the Women’s March on Versailles, on 5 October 1789 which led to French King Louis XVI finally agreeing to ratify the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens.

The route included a 436m climb and 438m descent. The maximum gradient on the route was 13.5 percent.

© Agence France-Presse

But the modern Olympics shared some of the exclusionary history of its ancient predecessor that disallowed women and slaves from participation, with women first being permitted to participate in the Olympic marathon from 1984.

The South African Review reported on the first Olympic Games in 1896 as an event that “the South African sportsman knows so little about”.

No Africans were represented. 

The 1904 Olympic Games was initially scheduled for Chicago but the St Louis World Fair’s physical culture director, James E Sullivan, convinced the International Olympic Committee to move the spectacle there.

Only a small number of European athletes attended the Games because of the high costs of the trip and accommodation. A quarrel between St Louis and Chicago city officials also dissuaded many athletes from attending. As a result, the Olympics were regarded as a side-show to the fair.

But South Africa was present, unofficially, at the 1904 Games, becoming the first African nation in modern day Olympic history to participate. 

The athletes in the marathon race on 30 August 1904 were Len Tau, Jan Mashiani and a settler athlete, BW Harris. 

These athletes have been forgotten by sport administrators and historians. 

South African indigenous Olympians need to be included in narrative writings.

The Jameson Raid of 1896, South African War (1899-1902) and post-war economic depression in 1904 were factors that prevented South Africa participating in the Olympics. 

This was the situation until 1908, when South Africa entered an all-white male team at the Stockholm Olympic Games under the organisation of the South African National Olympic Committee. 

The entry was a colonising venture because black people were excluded and the team was represented by a British Red Ensign flag with a Springbok in the corner, while athletes wore a green sweater with a Springbok symbol. South Africa’s Charles Hefferon won silver.

South African Kennedy Kane McArthur won the Olympic marathon in 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden, and his Springbok teammate, Christopher Gitsham, won the silver medal.

Incidentally, when South Africa re-entered the Olympic Games in 1992, under an apartheid government, there also was no official national unity flag.

Much has been written about South Africa’s participation from 1908 till 1960 and then again from 1996 onwards. 

Modern media has published extensively that Josiah Thugwane was the first black South African marathoner to win a gold medal at an Olympic Games that year.

The 1904 Games coincided with the Boer War Show” as part of the Anthropological Fair in which various competitions were held for indigenous people of different continents. 

The ““Boer War Show” was also orchestrated by the South Africa circus entrepreneur Frank Fillis. South Africa participated as the “Boer Team” in the Olympic tug-of-war competition, held from 31 August to 1 September 1904. 

These participants, as well as Tau and Mashiani, were also part of the “Boer War Show” of the South African Boer War Company, with its racial problems, that lasted from 17 June until 2 December 1904. 

The Anthropological Fair was also a reflection of the eugenic and social Darwinism atmosphere of the time and visitors could view “6 000 photographs of unique phenomena, places and people from Africa”. Indigenous participants in the fair had events such as throwing stones at one another.

Pierre du Coubertin, who played a part in reviving the modern Olympic Games in 1896, condemned this abuse of the Olympic name as “inhuman”.

The marathon was a relatively unknown event to South Africans at the time. 

Tau and Mashiani thus had no coaching or training for this event. While running near the front, Mashiani was attacked by a large dog that chased him a mile off course.

Nevertheless, he finished 12th and Tau finished ninth. Harris dropped out after 24km. 

It was a race that took place in 32°C and very dusty conditions caused by bicycles and cars, resulting in most athletes withdrawing. This happened before the first official marathon in South Africa, held on 22 April 1908 in Cape Town. 

How Tau and Mashiani came to have a presence at the 1904 Olympic Games shows us the underside of colonialism and colonisation. Whereas the key figures in the “Boer War Show”, the Boer generals Ben Viljoen and Piet Cronjé, have been well recorded in formal studies and novels such as Boeresirkus, Tau and Mashiani remain obscure figures for modern readers. 

Yet, it is believed by some historians that they accompanied Cronjé to St Helena Island as part of the prisoner of war encampment and were his “messengers during the war (if true), their stamina have been legendary and widely known”.

Professor Floris van der Merwe has conducted detailed research on Tau and Mashiani’s participation in the marathon. 

It is this research that can be used to create a sport-historical narrative about them. Such a narrative must be one where the colonised subjects are placed at the centre of research. 

It is one, as described by the African novelist, Chinua Achebe, and quoted by historian and author André Odendaal, where “in the colonial situation, presence was the crucial word [and] its denial was the keynote of colonist ideology”. 

Therefore, my narrative differs from Van der Merwe, who asserts that “it seems that Tau and Mashiani’s achievements during the Olympic Games of 1904 had no immediate impact on the history of South African athletics”. Rather, their achievements are an indication of the state of black athletics in South Africa at the time. 

That same year, the South African governing bodies for athletics and cycling amalgamated to form the South African Amateur Athletics (AA) and Cycling Association (CA). In November the Orange River Colony AA and CA inquired about the participation of black people in competitions. The national body discouraged the provincial body from including such events in meetings. There would therefore have been no future career as athletes for Mashiani or Tau in South Africa if they returned home. 

But research by Douglas Coghlan, author of The Development of Athletics in South Africa: 1814 to 1914, has shown that black people in South Africa had reached a considerable level of athletic and cycling competition organisation finesse by then. 

Mark Leach and Gary Wilkins in Olympic Dream correctly state that Harris, Tau and Mashiani were unaware of the great historical moment they were making. Many settler writers downplayed Tau and Mashiani’s presence and misspelt their names and cultural identities. Writers referred to them as Zulus whereas Van der Merwe pointed out that a historical record of them shows they were Tswana. 

By 2024, usage of the term “kaffir” is outlawed and punishable. This was not so at the 1904 Olympic Games and the term was used in official programmes. 

What happened to Tau and Mashiani? No evidence exists other than a report that a number of black people had been fired from the Boer War Show in August 1904. They apparently then started working for a construction company in St Louis. The reason for their dismissal had been given as: “They had become sufficiently civilised to shirk work.” 

Tau and Mashiani leave a legacy of Olympic participation that begs us to ask: “What is happening to our sport civilisation in the 21st century?”

Francois Cleophas is an associate professor in sport history at Stellenbosch University.

The two races, which could go down in history as the most competitive in the 128-year marathon history, will see some of Africa’s leading distance runners, deemed favourites in this category, seek to bag the majority of the medals at stake.

According to World Athletics CEO, Jon Ridgeon, “The marathon is one of the highlight events at the Olympics.”

“If (top Kenyan) Eliud Kipchoge wins a third gold it would be history making.”

Ridgeon, who is one of Great Britain’s finest hurdlers with a clutch of global championship medals in his collection, is clearly excited about the weekend’s road races.

“Beyond that, the marathon course here in Paris is the toughest there has ever been in a major championship marathon. And we believe that makes it the most interesting of tactical races. And for the athletes, it also makes it more unpredictable – no one can say who will win. The marathons are going to be fascinating and likely standout events in Paris,” he added.

The challenging route that has everyone talking is the substantial hill climbs from 15km on the approach to the Palace of Versailles, with a second sharp hill coming deeper into the race, at around 28km. The two will have a significant impact on the outcome of the two marathons.

While the respective podiums are not expected to resemble those of the six Marathon Majors, which generally aim for flat and fast, the Paris Marathons will provide opportunities for more diversity in the assessment of marathon talent.

Notably, for the first time ever in Olympic history there is a mass participation marathon in parallel with the games.

“We are delighted that we have two amazing races over challenging course but also that it offers Parisians to come out and run it as well.”

The mass race, which takes place at night between the two championship events, demonstrates the spirit and effectiveness of French organising committee.

The Paris Olympic Games has seen packed stadiums across almost all sporting codes, with locals investing heavily for the opportunity to watch the world’s best in action.

Connoisseurs are already talking about the “best ever” in Olympiad history.

Importantly, the different sporting codes have highlighted the inclusivity and universality aspects of the games, one of the greatest shows on earth.

While not without controversy, the fact that Israelis can compete one-on-one against Palestinians, embracing all the virtues associated with the spirit of Olympism, and Ukrainians can compete against Russian athletes (albeit not under the Russian flag) underscores the spirit of the games.

“The world is fractured and divided at the moment,” said the President of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, at a press conference during the launch of the Olympics athletics programme.

“But I believe people want to come here to watch jaw-dropping quality sport and to see the God-given talent of the most exceptional athletes we have had in any generation,” Coe recognised.

“There are 211 member federations here in Paris – more than all member of the United Nations, and we were delighted that no fewer than eighty nations achieved a top eight finish in an event in Tokyo. And as of Tokyo, we now have a hundred countries that have now won medals at an Olympic Games and the sport of athletics is becoming increasingly more universal.”

bird story agency

Omar Khelif said he had raised his daughter “to be brave”, as he proudly showed off a picture of her aged seven or eight years old, wearing her hair in plaits.

“Since she was little her passion has always been sport,” the 49-year-old said, sitting with two of his younger children.

Competing in the 66kg category of the women’s boxing competition in the Paris Games, his daughter Imane has found herself in the middle of a heated global row after it emerged that she had previously failed unspecified gender eligibility tests.

Last Thursday, the 25-year-old caused her Italian rival Angela Carini to retire hurt during a fight at the Paris Olympics after just 46 seconds — sparking a social media furore, with some, including former US president Donald Trump, framing the issue as men fighting against women.

There is no suggestion that Khelif, who has fought on the women’s circuit for years, including at the Tokyo Olympics, identifies as anything other than a woman.

Her father showed identity documents and her birth certificate, speaking from a rural village about 10km from Tiaret — a town nearly 300km south-west of the capital Algiers, which has been hit by water shortages in recent months.

“My child is a girl,” Omar Khelif said. “She was raised as a girl. She is a strong girl — I raised her to work and be brave.”

Imane won her fight against Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori in Saturday’s quarter-finals, guaranteeing her a medal, the first at the Paris Games for Algeria.

Her father insisted that Imane won the controversial bout against Carini simply because she was “stronger and the other was weak”.

Imane has a “strong will at work and in training”, he said.

In an interview this year for the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) — for which she is an ambassador — Imane Khelif spoke of her conservative upbringing and said her father had initially had difficulty accepting her boxing.

He later accepted her career, she said in the interview, calling her parents her “biggest fans”.

The boxer told Unicef she wanted to encourage more girls to go into the sport, particularly as opportunities for girls in sport can be limited in Algeria, and help fight obesity in the country.

“Boxing was not a sport that was very popular with women, especially in Algeria,” she told Algerian television Canal Algerie ahead of the Olympics. “It was difficult.”

In addition to overcoming cultural challenges, she also had to travel 10km by bus from her village to train at the boxing gym — selling scrap metal for recycling to pay for the bus fare, while her mother sold couscous.

“Imane is an example of Algerian woman,” said her father. 

“She is one of the heroines of Algeria. God willing, she will honour us with a gold medal and raise the national flag in Paris.

“This has been our only goal since the beginning.”

In the local sports club where Imane started out, a group of girls of various ages were warming up and skipping with ropes.

“We wish her good luck; she is truly an athlete who makes us feel proud,” said 17-year-old Zohra Chourouk, punching her arms up in support.

“She honoured the national flag. She is our role model.”

The group of young women training called out a united “Good luck!” to their heroine.

Coach Abdelkader Bezaiz said he wanted to send her a message from the club where she had made her debut.

“I want to tell her that she shouldn’t bother with these criticisms circulating on social media networks,” the coach said.

“Their goal is clear — it’s designed to confuse her, and make her forget why she came to the Olympics.” — AFP

Who were the first Africans to compete in the modern Olympic Games? The answer to that question reveals the surprising story of a 1904 marathon — and exposes the history of racism and white supremacy that characterised the Olympics in its early days.

The first modern Olympic Games was held in 1896 in Greece. This was at the height of European colonialism and there is no record of Africans participating. It was only after World War II, in the late 1940s, that African countries began to join the Olympic movement in significant numbers, as African independence took hold.

There exists, however, a little-known story of two black South African runners who competed in the first US-hosted Olympics, in St Louis in 1904. They were Jan Mashiani and Len Taunyane (Tau), who appeared along with a white South African runner — BW Harris —on the Olympic marathon programme. A Boer tug-of-war team from South Africa also took part in the Olympics that year.

A photo of Mashiani and Tau is housed at the museum of the Missouri Historical Society, which switched their names around in the caption, resulting in the two men being given the wrong identities for decades.

Mashiani and Tau did not officially represent South Africa at the Games. That’s because, in 1904, South Africa was not South Africa at all, it was a colony governed by Great Britain. This was two years after the South African War between Great Britain and two independent Boer republics.

Both sides used black South Africans in various roles, including running with messages. Which is how Mashiani and Tau enter the picture — along with their appearance at a world’s fair in St Louis that was tied to the Olympics. 

The fair presented “savages” competing in physical displays as part of its international exhibition of science and culture.

The story of Mashiani and Tau was documented by the South African sport historian, Floris van der Merwe. It is from this research that a reconstruction can be drawn about them.

For me as a sport historian who teaches this history, this reconstruction matters. Colonialism wiped out records of African sporting history and achievements. And African Olympic history has not been researched as extensively as American and European Olympic histories.

So, documenting African sport histories like this one is an important act of reclaiming black life — while discussing the ugly prejudices it has had to endure and rise above.

The 1904 Olympic Games was a far cry from what we will see in Paris in 2024. For one thing, events looked pretty different. One researcher writes: “The early games was a fascinating jumble of bizarre tournaments … that included swimming obstacle races, tug-of-war, hot air balloon contests, polo cycling and American croquet.”

The 1904 games was also steeped in racism and reflected the eugenics culture of the day. The St Louis Olympics accommodated the St  Louis World’s Fair, which held various competitions for the indigenous people of different continents, under the title Anthropology Days.

Van der Merwe writes that while the Olympic marathon was scheduled for 30 August, “athletic events for savages” were planned for 11 and 12 August: “The unique spectacle of men deliberately throwing stones at one another was to be one of the features at the athletic meet … in which all of the ‘savage tribes’ at the World’s Fair will compete.”

Before competing in the Olympic marathon, Jan Mashiani (referred to as “Yamasani” by officials who could not pronounce his name) and Len Tau (referred to as “Lentauw”) participated in this “athletic event for savages”. Besides the stone-throwing battle, there was javelin throwing for accuracy, tree climbing, throwing the baseball, and various track and field sports including a one-mile (1.6km) race, which they participated in.

They did so as part of the South African War Show at the fair. Both had probably been messengers for the Boers during the war. Van der Merwe cites an account of the one-mile event: “From the start Lentauw set a killing pace for the first lap, running like an old-time professional followed by his countryman. Despite his lead of 20 yards, he kept looking back and lost valuable ground in the process. In the stretch he was finally passed by a Syrian and an Indian.”

Mashiani and Tau were probably Tswana speakers. But the country’s Zulu people were better known internationally. By 14  August it was reported, according to Van der Merwe, that entries for the Olympic marathon had been received from, among others, Zululand.

Van der Merwe believes that they had been used by the Boers under General Piet Cronje during the war in South Africa to carry messages — which is why they could move at a fast pace for long periods. He contests newspaper reports from the St Louis Post-Dispatch that “Leetouw” and “Yamasani” had been runners for the English army.

Today in South Africa, using the so-called “k-word” racial slur to describe black people is punishable by law. In 1904, the official Olympic programme notes “BW Harris; Lentauw, k… mail carrier; and Yamasani, k… mail carrier” on the marathon line-up. The white South African runner, Harris, had entered about a week earlier than Mashiani and Tau, so it’s possible that he persuaded them to take part.

The 1904 Olympic marathon was a gruelling race run over 40km in very hot (32°C) conditions — made worse by the dust generated by vehicles using the same road. 

The runners started in two rows, Harris in the front row and Mashiani and Tau in the back row. Harris dropped out, while Tau finished ninth and Mashiani 12th. One of them, it was reported, could have done better had he not been chased off course by a dog while running along a deserted road that formed part of the course.

Mashiani and Tau were the first two Africans to compete in the Olympic Games. (The third from South Africa would be Ron Eland, who qualified for the British weightlifting team in 1948 before emigrating to the US and later to Canada.)

In 1948 the South African government introduced apartheid, black South Africans were not able to represent their country at the Olympics. And because of apartheid, the country was banned from competing in the Games from 1964 until 1992.

Francois Cleophas is an associate professor at Stellenbosch University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

After the horse-trading to win the Games came the French infighting over how to host them.

Paris was not sure it wanted to risk another rebuff after losing its 2005 bid for the 2012 Games to a London bid that the French believed inferior. After the 2015 terror attacks on the French capital, Anne Hidalgo, elected Paris mayor in 2014, decided the city needed to act to rebound from the trauma.

Just after his election as president in 2017, Emmanuel Macron promoted France’s case to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Since 2005, France had built a national velodrome and a canoe-kayak venue near Paris.

“By missing the Games, we built all the facilities,” said a former elected official.

After Los Angeles agreed to go for the 2028 Games, France was awarded the 2024 Games in September 2017.

France would host a “sober” Games, using existing facilities and temporary arenas in postcard Paris: the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, Place de la Concorde. After testing the water with a cautious toe, it added swimming in the Seine.

Hidalgo, a socialist, dredged up an old and unfulfilled promise by Gaullist Jacques Chirac, when he was mayor, that Parisians should be able to swim in their river.

On 17 July, 10 days before the Games, Hidalgo took a dip in front of a battery of cameras.

Behind the scenes, the waters were sometimes murky as the national government, local elected officials and the organising committee bickered.

“Deep down, we are pains in the ass,” said one former local elected official to describe the relationship with the organising committee.

Paris organisers have made much of the planned legacy. A major beneficiary was to be the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, to the north of Paris, home of the main stadium and the Olympic village.

But the high price of tickets and elevated security mean the residents have difficulty feeling included in the mega-sports festival on their doorstep.

Saint-Denis has gained a swimming pool but the department was deprived of several promised events. When shooting was moved in 2022 to Chateauroux in central France, to the fury of local officials, the early stages of the boxing was switched to suburban Villepinte to compensate.

Hidalgo sent ripples through the organising committee in 2019 when she vetoed France’s oil and energy titan, TotalEnergies, as a sponsor.

The organising committee did not plug its last big sponsorship hole until July 2023, when, after months of negotiations and “messages” from the Élysée Palace, French luxury goods behemoth LVMH signed.

“There are some bluffs in this kind of negotiation,” said Antoine Arnault, son of company owner Bernard Arnault. “We wanted to get our money’s worth.”

There were also culture clashes between French bureaucracy and the glitz and hype of anglophone international sports administrators and marketers.

The head of the organising committee, Tony Estanguet, a French triple Olympic champion, straddled the cultures by talking of an Olympics that will “break the codes”.

There was friction with the police when the organising committee and Paris decided to hold the opening ceremony on the Seine, breaking the tradition of the Games beginning in the main stadium.

Originally planned as a people’s party along the banks, the police have had their way and most spectators will sit in allocated seats in fenced-off areas.

The budget has led to time-honoured problems as it has ballooned. Paris has been hit by inflation as well as the Covid pandemic and the knock-on effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The IOC, which is struggling to attract potential hosts, agreed to lower standards.

“The instructions to the IOC are to help Paris. The Olympics must be a success,” said one Olympic source.

Even so, in December 2022, the organising committee increased its predicted operating budget by €400 million, more than 10%. With infrastructure, the bill is close to €9  billion, two billion more than the 2019 estimate. That still makes Paris one of the cheaper recent Summer Games.

The organising committee has suffered a few bumps along the way. It was raided on suspicion of a conflict of interest, in particular in awarding “consulting contracts”, and Estanguet’s salary package has been subject to investigations by the national financial prosecutor’s office.

There was a race to complete all the work, with finishing touches still being applied days before the start. Nicolas Ferrand, in charge of the construction of the athletes’ village, said he was in a “cold sweat” after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, fearing shortages of materials.

Whatever happens, “two weeks before every­one will say that ‘it’s a disaster’ and in fact it’s not,” said a close friend of mayor Hidalgo. — AFP

Just 12 years later things are looking vastly different for Amos. Fallen from grace after a positive dope test that resulted in a three-year ban, the now 30-year-old has moved back to his village of Marobela and even considered selling his Olympic medal to make ends meet.

But his blazing desire for success has not diminished and the middle-distance star is determined to find redemption at the end of this tough road he’s travelled.

Amos was just 18 years old when he won that Olympic silver in London. He then went on to beat Rudisha to claim Commonwealth Games gold in 2014 and although multiple injuries kept him from winning more major global medals, he was a regular victor on the Diamond League circuit. 

By 2021 he ran a world-leading time of 1:42.91 in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics. There, disaster struck when he collided with American Isaiah Jewett in his semifinal and although he was allowed to run the final, Amos had injured his quad muscle in the fall and finished a distant eighth. Hopes were high he’d soon be back to his best, though.

But everything changed for Amos in July 2022 just as he was planning to head to the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, his training base at the time.

“The staff from the doping organisation arrived at my house as I was getting ready to leave for the games village to deliver the news. In retrospect, I’m glad I was spared the humiliation of having to leave the games village, but it was still devastating to hear,” said Amos, who has decided to open up about the trials of the last few years.

“It was the worst news I had ever received in my entire career, and I was at a loss for words about what, why, or even how something like this could have happened to me. 

“I had put in so much work and effort in preparing for the World Championships which were held in Eugene — a place I called home — and being robbed of the opportunity to run in my ‘hometown’ was heartbreaking.” 

Amos had tested positive for metabolites of GW1516, a prohibited substance that modifies how the body metabolises fat that was “originally synthesised and evaluated for the treatment of obesity, diabetes and other disorders caused by metabolic problems but is now not approved for human use”, according to the Athletics Integrity Unit.

The urine sample that tested positive was provided during an out-of-competition test on 4 June 2022 in Rabat, Morocco.

“After learning, I kept a close eye on everything I ate, did, and came into contact with, but I still don’t understand how the substance entered my sample. I even went so far as to test every supplement I took, and all of the results were negative. The most bizarre thing was that I was tested in Ostrava and the results were still negative. I then had testing in Rabat five days later, and the results were positive. The entire experience seemed so odd, and as I mentioned earlier, it still makes no sense.”

Amos eventually signed an admission of anti-doping rule violations to reduce his ban by a year, but remains adamant he did nothing wrong.

“The entire process was financially, emotionally and spiritually draining. I battled for nearly two years until my resources and energy ran out, leaving me with no other choice than to make the admission.”

Initially breaking the news to his family was the tough part for Amos.

“They know who I am and the principles I uphold, so having to explain how this happened was shocking and confusing to them. It was difficult for them to comprehend how something like this could have happened.

“Nevertheless, their love and support kept me going and they stood by me through that trying time, and for that, I am sincerely grateful,” he said.

Despite the disappointment, Amos set his mind on maintaining his training. He will be allowed to return to international competition on 11 July 2025 and has big plans.

“The goal is to stage the greatest comeback the world has ever witnessed and earn a spot in the September 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.

“I always have to remind myself that I still have a lot to give and that my story isn’t over, even on the difficult days when it’s hard to find the drive to get up and show up. Watching the performance of the upcoming athletes also inspires me and motivates me to train even harder.”

As for whether he can return to the heights of 2012, when he ran a lifetime best of 1:41.73 for that Olympic silver, Amos remains confident.

“‘As a man thinketh so is he.’ I therefore do think I could run 1:41 once more. My current training indicates that I can and breaking into the sub-1:41 club would be an incredible dream come true. Who knows? Maybe I could even break the world record while I’m at it. I’ve changed a lot over the years; I’m now much more grounded, mature, and will approach situations very differently.”

For now though, Amos will need to watch his compatriots looking to add to the nation’s Olympic medal haul in Paris from a distance. Heading the charge is young sprint sensation Letsile Tebogo, who claimed silver and bronze at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

“If there is one thing Botswana does best it’s to unearth the greatest talents the world has ever seen and Letsile Tebogo is evidence of that,” he said. 

“It started with Glody Dube, who was the first Motswana to run in the Olympics, then my era came and I brought the first individual Olympic medal and now in this generation, we have the world record-breaking athlete Letsile Tebogo. He is also inspiring the next generation of athletes to do so much more.” 

While Amos is backing the Botswana team all the way, he’ll also be continuing his countdown to this time next year when he believes he’ll fulfil his ultimate destiny.

“A person’s name has great significance in my culture. I was named Nijel by my parents, which means champion, and that has manifested in a lot of different ways in my life,” he explained.

“I remain the greatest, I will always be a champion, and my name will leave an indelible mark on history for future generations.”

The year was 1960, and Bikila’s win signalled the start of African domination in the sport that has increased and set a marker which many of his compatriots were to follow over the next six decades.

At 28, Bikila became the second African to win Olympic marathon gold, following South African Ken McArthur’s 1912 victory, and the first to defend his title with a 2:12:11 win in Tokyo four years later.

Olympic success boosted Bikila’s military career in the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, earning him promotions: to corporal after his 1960 triumph, lieutenant after his Tokyo victory and captain despite dropping out 16km into the 1968 Olympic Marathon in Mexico City because of a stress fracture.

After Bikila’s reign ended, Ethiopia continued to excel. His teammate Mamo Wolde won in Mexico City, Gezahegne Abera triumphed in Sydney in 2000 and Fatuma Roba and Tiki Gelana claimed victories in the women’s competition in Atlanta 1996 and London 2012, respectively, flying the Ethiopian flag high.

Despite more than a decade passing since Ethiopia’s last Olympic Marathon victory, with its abundant distance-running talent and the impressive credentials of the current marathon team, podium glory is overdue.

Today, Kenenisa Bekele is possibly the most successful and decorated distance runner on the planet. At 42, he is still at the peak of his career and seeking to add Olympic success in the marathon to the many medals he won at the highest level on the track.

Switching to the women and at the opposite end of the experience spectrum, former 400m and 800m track star Tigist Assefa, 27, has run only three marathons, all of them faster than 2:17 and one at 2:11:53 — faster than any other woman in history.

The pair will undoubtedly contend for line honours in the most competitive races in Olympic marathon history, but apart from threats from other nations, notably neighbouring Kenya, they could be challenged and possibly surpassed by their impressive teammates.

The three-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion, Bekele, will line up on the start line in Paris with reigning Boston Marathon champion and fastest qualifier in the field, Sisay Lemma, and winner of the 2024 Seville Marathon, Deresa Geleta.

Bekele may not have emulated his track and cross-country success (where he bagged 19 global titles) on the road, but only world record holder, the late Kelvin Kiptum (2:00:35) and Eliud Kipchoge (2:01:09) have ever run faster than Bekele’s 2019 Berlin Marathon winning time of 2:01:41.

An outsider for the Ethiopian team after his fourth place at Valencia in December, Bekele kicked the selection door wide open with a competitive run in London in April, where he finished second, just 14 seconds behind the winner, Kenyan Alexander Munyao. That earned his place on the team and set up a fascinating head-to-head duel with Kipchoge.

A day after the men’s race and on the last day of the 2024 Olympics, world record holder Assefa will go to the start line of the women’s marathon alongside teammates Amane Beriso, 32, who won the world marathon title in Budapest last year, and Megertu Alemu, 26, fourth in London this year and second in the year before.

Assefa proved her Berlin triumph was no flash in the pan, with an impressive race at London in April, when she finished second, just seven seconds behind Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya, whose 2:16:16 set a world-record for women’s only marathons. The third Ethiopian in the Paris team, Alemu, finished fourth in that race, just 18 seconds off the lead in the closest finish in the race’s history.

If the strength of a nation’s marathon team can be judged by those left out as opposed to those selected, Ethiopia will be hard to beat. 

The 2023 New York marathon champion and gold medallist at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, Tamirat Tola, and 2024 Boston Marathon runner-up Mohamed Esa, were named as reserves on the men’s team, while Gotytom Gebreslase, winner and runner-up at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships respectively, Buze Diriba, fourth at Boston in April, and Sutume Asefe, winner at Tokyo this year, could only make the women’s squad as official reserves.

Haji Adilo, named as one of the two coaches on the Ethiopian marathon team, believes that all the athletes are in really good shape in their final training weeks at a base in Addis Ababa.

“We have adapted the athletes’ training according to the course and conditions in Paris,” Adilo said. “We’ve not changed the whole system of training, but rather changed some specific parts because of the course and conditions in Paris.”

Speaking about the women’s team, Adilo underplayed its strength. “Amane [Beriso] is our most experienced athlete in the women’s team. It’s difficult to say if she will podium or not as it’s a very strong field. The Kenyans will be tough to beat.

“The Paris course will not be easy — it’s a big challenge. In a championship race, it’s not just about the talent of the athlete [on easier courses] — this one is very challenging and anything could happen.”

— bird story agency

eThekwini Metro’s Economic Development and Planning Unit chairperson, Thembo Nthuli, said the event would attract more than 45 000 punters, fashionistas and guests, while a further 20 000 people would attend the many side events across the city this weekend.

“The direct spend is estimated at R271 million, with a total of R670 million contribution to the eThekwini GDP, and a total number of 5 000 jobs will be created,” Ntuli said.

He said safety measures have been implemented and metro police, South African Police Service and public order policing units were on high alert to ensure the safety and security of visitors to the city.

“Metro Police officers will be deployed around the Greyville area, working with other law-enforcement agencies. All intersections will be managed for traffic control, with some road closures,” Ntuli said.

Gold Circle marketing and sponsorships executive Steven Marshall said the theme for the event Ride the Wave referred not only to the rolling waves of the Indian Ocean, but also highlighted the “resilience” of the people of Durban and KwaZulu-Natal who had faced the April 2022 floods and the June 2024 tornado in Tongaat.

Marshall said last year the event had been hit by the setback of a power outage that forced the last three races to be cancelled.

“This year, the event organisation team has forged a close collaborative relationship with the green electricity unit, and together, we’ve created an in-depth plan to mitigate what happened last year with multiple backup options in case of any unforeseen circumstances,” Marshall said.

He said fashion was a core pillar of the event, along with hospitality and entertainment.

“It’s fashion that maintains the event’s relevance and keeps it fresh. Every single year, our extensive Hollywoodbets Durban July Fashion Experience, presented by Durban Fashion Fair, features Young Designer Awards, the DFF Rising Stars and our Hollywoodbets Durban July-invited designer showcase,” Marshall said.

Turning to the main horse racing event of the day, Marshall said there would be a return match between last year’s winner Winchester Mansion, with Kabela Matsunyane aboard, and runner-up See it Again, who he beat by a nose.

“See it Again is joined by Royal Victory, as two of our KZN contingent, with a very good chance for a local win. We have very exciting three-year-olds this year and Green with Envy is our ruling favourite for July with our sponsor, Hollywoodbets,” he said.

“Purple Pitcher and Flag Man join him as very good three-year-olds and Oriental Charm, who many feel is a dark horse this year, has also got a very good chance,” Marshall said.

Rachel Venniker will be the first female jockey riding in the event, aboard trainer Justin Snaith’s horse, Without Question.  

“We also have our record-breaking jockey, Richard Fourie, who recently beat the South African record for the number of wins in a single season, and he’s riding Future Swings — so don’t discount that horse either,” Marshall said.

Hollywoodbets Brand and Communications manager, Devin Heffer, said this year’s event was the 128^th running of the race.

“It’s one of the only sporting events in the world that’s run uninterrupted over that period. It survived pandemics. It survived world wars. It even survived the Soccer World Cup, when we got moved to the end Saturday of July.

“But this race carries on its incredible legacy — as we know, it’s Africa’s greatest horse racing event,” Heffer said.

He said Mango Groove would perform the national anthem before the running of the main race at 4pm, while a variety of artists and DJ’s would entertain guests throughout the day.

Ntuli said the event is the latest in a string of events hosted in the city recently, including the Comrades Marathon, the House and Garden Show and the Isuzu Ironman.

“Winter-season events hosted in Durban bring much needed economic spin-offs, specifically for the local tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as related value chains,” Ntuli said.

He said a series of township experiences and activations are also lined-up for the July weekend. These include Fact Durban Rocks, eKasi Durban July, Mojo’s July Weekend, eThekwini Jazz Jam, Artizen Durban July and the White Party Lifestyle Excursion.