Zareena Gaibee finds out more about the crazy journey of South Africa’s canoeists at the Olympics; their resilience, passion, and the true spirit of chasing dreams against all odds.
Paris, France (23 August 2024) – The Olympics are over for the next four years until the event reconvenes in Los Angeles in 2028. While we still have the Paralympics starting next week on the 28th of August, I have one last remarkable story to share with you—one about two South African canoeing pairs.
The Women’s Battle: Overcoming Hurdles on the Road to Paris
On the women’s side, there are two athletes who have dedicated almost everything to the sport of canoe sprinting. Despite their relentless efforts, they have continuously faced the heart-breaking hurdle of funding, which meant things never quite worked out as they had hoped. Tiffany Koch made it to the Games in London 2012 and aimed to compete again with Esti Olivier in the K2 event in Rio. Unfortunately, the duo fell just one place short of qualifying for Rio 2016. Esti did manage to qualify for the Tokyo Games but couldn’t secure the funding to participate and fulfil her dreams. This year, however, they both got to take to the water. Qualifying in the Women’s Kayak Double 500m, they also had the opportunity to compete as individuals. Unfortunately, things didn’t go their way, and they failed to progress either as individuals or as a pair.
Nevertheless, the fact that they were competitive despite not having formal coaching, with the qualification standards being shared only weeks before the nationals, is remarkable. Additionally, the fact that they live in different provinces and could only train together once a month for a weekend meant they probably spent more time together in Paris than in all their lead-up to the Games. This isn’t the result they wanted, but these Olympians certainly gave it everything they had.
Marathon Men in a Sprint: Hamish Lovemore and Andy Birkett’s Olympic Quest
Not quite in the same boat, but certainly riding the same waves, were Hamish Lovemore and Andy Birkett. If you don’t know their names, you should—they are legends in the Dusi Canoe Marathon world. Andy has won every edition, both K1 and K2, in which he has competed since his maiden win in the K2 in 2010, except for finishing second to Lance Kime in the 2016 solo event. Just so you know, the Dusi is a 120km race along the East Coast of South Africa between the cities of Pietermaritzburg and Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. 120km! And Andy has won it 14 times.
Hamish Lovemore is no slouch either, having powered his way to gold at the Canoe Marathon World Championships in 2022. So, these are marathon men—what were they doing at a sprint event? As it turns out, they were powering their way to becoming Olympians. In canoeing, it’s the boat that qualifies for the Olympics, not the individual athletes. This means that the athletes who eventually compete in the Games might differ from those who originally qualified the boat.
With the women’s team, Esti and a different partner, Helen Jansen van Vuuren, qualified the boat and then competed with different partners in the final qualification event, with Esti and Tiffany nabbing the Olympic spot. Unfortunately, neither of the men who originally qualified the boat, Chrisjan Coetzee and Nicholas Weeks, made it to the Games, being beaten to the punch by Andy and Hamish. But they didn’t just make it to the Olympics—they were credible contenders. They didn’t go straight to the semi-finals but qualified through the quarterfinals and then narrowly missed out on the A final by just 0.2 of a second. Hamish even made it to the semi-final in the K1 event.
At first, I didn’t quite understand why they were so happy after their K2 quarterfinal, but they were ecstatic. They were thrilled, saying all they wanted was one good race, and that’s what they had been working on for the last six months. At the time, I didn’t get it. All of that for one good race—surely they wanted more than that? Then they explained that they had been working non-stop for six months—six whole months—to achieve what others have trained their whole lives for. But they went all in, even living together for that time. Hamish literally moved in with Andy.
Medals were not on the cards for the duo this time, but these are men who specialise in hundreds of kilometres, not hundreds of metres. Yet they turned up, gave it everything, and performed credibly alongside every other athlete there. They carried not only the South African flag but also that of canoe marathon paddlers worldwide. They didn’t qualify the boat, but boy, did they race it.
The True Spirit of the Olympics: Unsung Heroes and Unseen Efforts
Upon reflection, this is what the Olympics is all about. We don’t always see the people who make things happen—those who qualify the boat, for instance. Many sports rely heavily on wonderful, well-meaning, unpaid volunteers. Without their contributions, much of what happens in the sporting world, including the Olympics, simply wouldn’t be possible. Of course, they come with their own biases—we all do. So, if things take a little longer and aren’t perfect, that’s understandable. Sometimes they open up a back door that no one saw coming, but that means nothing until someone walks through it.
We often say there isn’t enough money, and it’s true. I just didn’t realise until now how much of a disservice we are doing to our athletes by not investing in the management side of sports. People don’t always know what they need to do or where their opportunities lie, whether they are marathon athletes or just random, part-time, aspiring writers like myself.
I take nothing away from each individual because you don’t get to the Olympics alone. Everyone plays a part—from grassroots to the main stage. But if we all knew what role we had to play, perhaps it would be that much easier. Maybe it would allow people to try new things and chase big, crazy dreams, whether in the same field or somewhere else.
For now, there is no clear path to the Olympics, no straightforward route to follow, whether you’re sprinting on land or water. Find your chances, take your shot. It may not be in your field or what you have been training for, but in six months’ time, it could just be magic.
Faster. Higher. Stronger. Together.
P.S. If you’re wondering about Andy and Hamish’s fresh new looks, Olympic athletes get free hair services. It wasn’t just to streamline for the sprint—I asked.
Zareena Gaibee will be on the ground in Paris for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics events, sharing her take on the prestigious sporting event, giving exclusive insights into life at the games, and hopefully meeting many of the South Africans in Paris who are competing and supporting. She will be reporting her findings for Good Things Guy, giving readers a glimpse of what flying the flag in Paris is all about.
You can follow her series via Good Things Guy here.
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