Former Olympian and World Champion Matthew Quinn knows what sporting opportunity can become and now he is taking that opportunity to young South Africans who have never had it.
Johannesburg, South Africa (23 September 2026) – South Africa’s next Olympic champion might already be out there, sitting in a classroom at a school with no athletics track, no equipment, no coach and absolutely no idea just how talented they are.
That is who Matthew Quinn is trying to find.
On this week’s “Good Things with Brent Lindeque” poddie, I got to chat to the former South African Olympian and World Champion who has made it his mission to take athletics into schools where the sport just doesn’t exist. It is a massive challenge. Parliament was told in 2026 that 9,248 South African schools have no sports facilities at all, with rural communities particularly affected. Without organised athletics, talented kids can go through their entire school careers without ever discovering what they are capable of.
Matt knows what that opportunity can lead to. He represented South Africa in the 100m and 200m at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and was part of the South African 4x100m relay team that became World Champions in 2001.
Two years ago, he founded Track+Field to give children across South Africa an opportunity to discover athletics and compete, taking the programme into all nine provinces and searching for talent far beyond the traditional sporting schools.
“We’ve got so much talent in this country but the biggest problem we had was that it’s only in two provinces, Gauteng and the Western Cape… We are going to all nine provinces.”
And that’s where he has found stories like Thabo. Thabo attended a school without an athletics programme. He discovered javelin on YouTube, carved himself a stick and started practising. He had never had the proper equipment or opportunity to compete… until Track+Field arrived.
“There is a lot of talent out there. Kids can naturally run, jump and throw… It’s how we play as kids. It’s about finding those gems.”
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“It’s getting more kids involved. It’s getting schools we’ve never heard of and talent an opportunity to compete.”
Somewhere out there could be South Africa’s next world champion, practising on a dusty field with whatever equipment they can find. Matt Quinn just wants to make sure we don’t miss them.
Listen and watch my full conversation with Matthew Quinn on this week’s “Good Things with Brent Lindeque” below:
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