Rory Steyn on who really runs South African sport
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In two years, Comrades runners threw out a board accused of vote-buying and steering tenders to friends, and cut ties with the provincial and national athletics bodies to run their own race.
Swimming South Africa had to wait for an integrity panel in Switzerland to act. Rory Steyn, Nelson Mandela's former bodyguard and now a Comrades Marathon Association board member, told Alec Hogg why one could fix itself and the other could not, and why he believed too many of the country's sports federations were run by politicians dressed up as administrators. He went through the suspensions that have piled up since March, from SASCOC to athletics, swimming, karate and netball, set out what he would do in Gayton McKenzie's shoes, and asked why an Olympic champion had to fight her own federation for her prize money. His challenge to everyone else in South African sport: Comrades has done it, so what is stopping you?
Swimming South Africa had to wait for an integrity panel in Switzerland to act. Rory Steyn, Nelson Mandela's former bodyguard and now a Comrades Marathon Association board member, told Alec Hogg why one could fix itself and the other could not, and why he believed too many of the country's sports federations were run by politicians dressed up as administrators. He went through the suspensions that have piled up since March, from SASCOC to athletics, swimming, karate and netball, set out what he would do in Gayton McKenzie's shoes, and asked why an Olympic champion had to fight her own federation for her prize money. His challenge to everyone else in South African sport: Comrades has done it, so what is stopping you?
