Home > News

Africa at London 2012

6 August 2012

It’s a miracle that any of the lucky people who have attended Olympic events don’t need surgery on their vocal chords, after one of the most exciting and nail-biting Olympic games in recent times. Bitter disappointment, piercing screams, and euphoric celebrations have been the soundtrack to London 2012, and that’s just in the living rooms of houses across the world!

African athletes have been doing their countries, and continent, proud with a flurry of gold, silver, and bronze medals, securing a good place on the medals league table

Oscar Pistorius, The Blade Runner

South Africa has been a huge talking point of the Games, with three-time Paralympic gold medallist sprint runner, Oscar Pistorius, or ‘Blade-Runner’ as he’s affectionately known, taking part in the Men’s 400m Olympic Semi-finals.

However, Pistorius is not the only African athlete who has inspired a generation, as we take a look at two of the stand-out African athletes who have fought their way to the podium, on day 10 of the London Olympic Games:

Chad Le Clos

South African swimmer, Chad Le Clos

Gold

2012 London

200m butterfly

Silver

2012 London

100m butterfly

Not many people can say that they have raced, and beaten, one of the most successful Olympians of all time, 18-time gold medallist Michael Phelps, but 20-year-old South African swimmer Chad Le Clos holds that honour.

Having been named Daily News’ SPAR Sports Person of the Year in 2010, Clos has grown from strength to strength winning gold medals in the World Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and the All-African games.

In a nail-biting final of the Men’s 200m Butterfly, Clos beat Phelps by a fraction of a second, 0.05 to be precise, to stand strong at the winner’s podium. However, revenge is sweet, and Phelps’ victory in the Men’s 100m Butterfly Final left Clos with a silver medal.

His Dad, Bert le Clos, has become one of our, and the Olympics, favourite moments, after an incredible interview, which you can watch here.  

Looking towards the future, Clos told journalists that he was “looking to 2016 with multiple events on my back building up to that.” We might be seeing the next Michael Phelps in the making.

 

Tiki Gelana

Ethiopian long distance runner, Tiki Gelana

Gold

2012 London

Marathon

 

How long do you think it would take you to run 26.2 miles? 5-6 hours? Probably more like 5-6 days (for me anyway.) Well how about 2 hours and 23 minutes. That was the time of Ethiopian long-distance runner Tiki Gelena who set an Olympic Record in the Women’s marathon race on the 5th August. Having raced through traditional British weather, never-ending rain, Gelana fought off competition from Kenyan runner, Priscah Jeptoo, and Russian competitor, Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova.

At the age of 24, she is one of Ethiopia’s most successful athletes, having been inspired by her uncle and Olympic gold medalist, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Gezahegne Abera.  

As an inspiration, for the documentary film, “Town of Runners”, Tiki describes the running tradition in Ethiopia as “a lifestyle in Bekoji [her home town] and I am part of that”

 

If you have any stand out African athletes, why not tweet us? Or comment the article below. We'd love to hear who you think is making a splash at the Olympic Games this year!

 

Article contributed by:

Billy Hill

The stereotype of Africa is not its reality. It’s a growing continent and I’ll be writing about the exciting changes that are happening everyday.


What do you think? Comment below.