END OF AN ERA

After three decades making South Africa proud, paralympian Ernst van Dyk is bowing out and getting set for new challenges 

- BY KESHIA AFRICA

AS AN athlete he knows when it’s time to dig deep and push himself, even when his muscles are at breaking point and his lungs are on fire.

It’s this mentality and perseverance that has helped Ernst van Dyk become one of the greatest wheelchair athletes the world has ever seen.

Over the past three decades Ernst (50) has received one accolade after the next, including 10 Boston Marathon wheelchair titles and eight Paralympic medals.

As he stormed his way to glory, it seldom occurred to him the day would come when he’d be ready to retire.

But true champions know when to quit, he tells us as we chat to him at his office in Kraaifontein, near Cape Town.

Over the past few years he’s become painfully aware that he’s a lot older than his fellow competitors, he explains.

“I haven’t been competing against anyone my age, only 17- and 18-yearolds,” he says.

Since being promoted to a new role as managing director at Össur South Africa – a company that manufactures orthopaedic equipment – in 2021 he’s had less time to train and this has had a noticeable effect on his performance.

“I had to fight for a spot in the top 20 in races.

It wasn’t fun because I knew it wasn’t my full potential,” he says.

Eventually came the moment of reckoning.

“I asked myself if I wanted to compete with one foot in and one foot out, and I chose to rather do something else.”

But he couldn’t just quit – he needed one last hurrah so the South African committed to competing in four final marathons before bowing out at the end of the year.