'We'll go big for LA'

We are going to find the Tatjanas in the rural areas and Smith will help us.’

- Marizka Coetzer

As he welcomed home South Africa's Olympic team yesterday, of Sport, Minister Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie promised that, for the next Games in Los Angeles in 2028, the government would give its full backing to SA athletes and promised to double the team's size from the current 150 to 300.

McKenzie had been moved and angered by the revelation that javelin silver medallist Jo-Ane van Dyk had received not a single cent in financial support from the government and that her family had to pay for her through years of training and competing leading up of Paris 2024.

"I want to publicly say this today: as SA, we have the responsibility to take no less than 300 Olympians in 2028. It's a promise I am going to make it happen," the minister told journalists at OR Tambo International Airport.

"We are going to find the Tatjanas in the rural areas.