The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) has announced the final 137-strong complete South African roster for the 2016 Olympic Games. In addition to the 24 athletes initially announced back on May 25th, after the final rounds of qualifying deadlines, an additional 113 athletes will wear the flag in Rio beginning on August 5th.
Among the total are 15 aquatic athletes spread over the disciplines of diving, open water swimming and competitive pool swimming. Proven Olympic and World champions Chad Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh are joined by talented newcomers such as Calvyn Justus and Myles Brown. Noticeable, however, is the fact that South Africa is without any women representation in the pool and will be solely represented by Julia Vincent in diving and Michelle Weber in open water.
Of the entire South African Olympic contingent, SASCOC President Gideon Sam says, “You have all earned the ultimate honour of representing your country. We have every faith in you excelling at your various events. Attending the Olympics is the pinnacle of a sportsman’s dream. Go and showcase the rainbow nation to the best of your ability.”
SASCOC CEO and newly announced Chef de Mission Tubby Reddy echoed those statements saying, “Congratulations to all athletes who have had the honour to be selected as part of Team South Africa and compete in this prestigious sporting event. We’re confident that the team is the creme de la creme of sporting talent, with most of them having represented the country in international sporting events previously. We therefore wish them well and as the Olympic body we will rally behind you all the way. Do the country proud and go well.”
Also announced this week is the incentive program aimed at providing monetary prizes for both individual and relay medal-winning performances. The incentive program applies to both Olympic and Paralympic medals and each prize dollar amount is divided at 80% to individual athletes and 20% to the specific athlete’s coach. For relay medals, the 80% is split equally among the members and the remaining 20% is paid to the head coach of that specific sport.
Individual Medals:
Medal Total $ 80% 20%
Gold: R500 000 R400 000 R100 000
Silver: R250 000 R200 000 R 50 000
Bronze: R100 000 R 80 000 R 20 000
Team Event and Relay Medals:
Medal Total $ 80% 20%
Gold: R500 000 R400 000 R100 000
Silver: R250 000 R200 000 R 50 000
Bronze: R100 000 R 80 000 R 20 000
Familiarize yourself with the South African Olympians’ faces via the video and view the comprehensive list of aquatic athletes below.
Diving: Julia Vincent
Marathon swim: Michelle Weber, Chad Ho
Men
Chad le Clos, Jarred Crous, Dylan Bosch, Calvyn Justus, Cameron van der Burgh, Sebastien Rousseau, Michael Meyer, Christopher Reid, Matthew Meyer, Myles Brown, Bradley Tandy, Douglas Erasmus
Managers/Coaches: Shawn Adriaanse, Graham Hill, Dean Price, Cedric Finch, Igor Omeltchenko, William Sherritt, Alasdair Hatfield
Are they able to create a medley relay with le Clos fly, van der Burgh breast and anyone else for the other teo strokes?
$28,000 for an athlete $7,000 is a good sum of cash.
For 1 gold medal
This while athletes need to contribute for their own travel to Rio. How does this make any sense. South Africa has been known to charge their athlete significantly more for trips in order to cover the expenses for coaches and officials.
Pretty backwards
Calvyn Justus 🙂
14 swimmers, 7 coaches. I guarantee that the coaches and manager will not have to pay out of pocket for their air travel.
Interesting to note Shaun Adriaanse is team manager, he also happens to be the CEO of swimming South Africa. Is this in contravention of the Olympic charter?
Sad that these athletes have to deal with such incompetency from their Olympic committee and their national federation