Amber Schlebusch was the first South African to win a gold medal at the Youth Olympics so when she returned home, she was given the best welcome.
Amber Schlebusch has been given a warm welcome home after her stay in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the 2018 Youth Olympics. Schlebusch was the first Team SA member to earn a gold medal.
Her win was for the women’s triathlon. With just 500m to go, she overtook Sif Bendix Madsen from Denmark and crossed the line to claim gold 11 seconds ahead of the Danish athlete. This was the first ever gold medal win for Amber in the Triathlon field.
Amber started out as a swimmer before changing her focus to other athletic pursuits. After her race, she explained how tough the first two segments of her race went but she redeemed herself on the run.
“I was a swimmer before triathlon and it’s funny that the swim now is my worst segment,”
“During the bike section I was in the pack at the back but nobody was really working so it was quite hard to close into the first two. I hadn’t ever seen these athletes before. So I didn’t really know how they could do the run. I could see them in front, though, even if they were quite far ahead.”
Now after her stellar win, she has returned home to a chorus of cheers! Her school, the Durban Girls’ College, were waiting for her at the King Shaka International Airport and broke into song as she walked through the doors.
She was moved to tears by the warm welcome. Take a watch below.
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