Women outperform men in SA's worst Commonwealth outing since 1994

Women have won more Commonwealth Games medals than men for the first time since 1994, but Birmingham 2022 was SA’s worst showing in 28 years. 

Team SA closed their campaign on Monday with 27 medals, seven of them gold, and languishing in the unfamiliar spot of ninth on the standings, having been overhauled by nations such as Wales, Nigeria and Scotland. 

The men’s hockey team brought the curtain down on SA’s participation on Monday, going down 6-3 in their bronze-medal showdown against England. 

It was their best Games showing, and by halftime, when the scores were 3-3 after an explosive six-goal second quarter, they looked like they were in it. 

But experience told in the end as the hosts took control. 

They were the last chance to draw the men level with the ladies, who ended with 14 medals to the men’s 13. The last time they outperformed the men was in 1994, SA’s first Commonwealth venture after readmission, capturing seven of the team’s 11 gongs. 

But this is no cause for celebration because this does not represent a growth in local women’s sport. At Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006 the women also contributed 14 medals — they have merely got back to where they were two decades ago.

If women’s sport has stagnated for two decades, men’s sport has gone backwards, delivering almost half — or less — than in previous years. The men won 26 medals In 1998, 32 in 2002, 24 in 2006, 25 in 2010, 30 in 2014 and 26 in 2018. 

Another interesting factor is that nine codes contributed to the 2022 medal tally, which is pretty much on par with the previous six Games — it was seven sports in 2018, 10 in 2014, seven in 2010, eight in 2006, nine in 2002 and nine in 1998. 

From 1998 to 2018 Team SA hovered between fifth and seventh on the medals table. They were fifth in 1998 and 2002, sixth in 2002, 2010 and 2018. In 2014 they were seventh. 

One can’t even blame track and field, which lost a few medal hopefuls because of withdrawals. They won three medals, which is comparable to Delhi 2010, where some of the athletics team went awol, leaving those who competed to win four gongs. Team SA still ended with 33 medals then, the lowest haul in the 1998-2018 era. 

Birmingham 2022 illustrates an all-round slide in SA sport, except perhaps in swimming. 

One factor is that other nations are reaping the rewards from their sports programmes, which enjoy proper funding.

SA, on the other hand, have gone the other way. 

These Games were supposed to be in Durban, with R1bn to be injected into age-group sport development. 

Nearly R120m was splashed out on a bid that, once the only other competitor, the Canadian city of Edmonton, withdrew, was a one-horse race. 

After Rio 2016 the SA government lost interest and effectively forced the Commonwealth Games Federation to pull the plug and go elsewhere. In 2017 Lotto effectively stopped funding elite athletes, though they did throw some cash at a handful of athletes in the months before Tokyo 2020. 

Olympic preparation is a four-year business, not a last-minute-dot-com donation. 

Even if the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) is able to secure a sponsor for its Operation Excellence funding programme, as president Barry Hendricks has been promising since early this year, there is only one full season between now and Paris 2024. 

It would be better than nothing, but the real dividends would be seen only at Los Angeles 2028. 

As for the sport ministry, it’s shown almost no initiative beyond the minister’s dream of a giant flag. 

This is the background against which Team SA slid down the standings. Seriously, is anyone really surprised?

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