The Silver Lining

Javelin star Sunette Viljoen’s road to Olympic glory has been paved with heartache, hard work and a whole lot of love.

AS SHE left her room in the athletes’ village at the Rio Olympic Games to fulfil her lifelong ambition of winning a medal in the finals of the javelin event, Sunette Viljoen took one last look at the placard she’d brought all the way from home.

She put the pebble a friend had given her – which had been kissed by her son, Henré, and touched by those closest to her before her departure – in her pocket and walked out the door, ready to end a long, painful but rewarding chapter of her life with a flourish.

Waiting to cheer her on in the Olympic stadium was the love of her life, TV news presenter LiMari Louw. Henré (11) was still fast asleep at home in South Africa while the other 20 or so people who’d put their positive energy into the ink on that placard and left their fingerprints on that pebble settled in front of their TVs in eager anticipation

An hour or so later they were to witness the greatest moment in the 32-year old Johannesburg athlete’s career when she threw her javelin 64,92 m to ensure herself a spot on the Olympic podium.

Four years after the pain of London 2012, when the bronze medal was cruelly snatched from her right at the end of the competition, she’d done enough to ensure herself a place. The silver medal was hers, and Sunette says it was enough for her – her life is already a treasure chest full of gold.

“Between London and now I’ve written a whole new chapter of my life,” she says, still basking in the glory of her win.