If Roland Schoeman was an Australian, French, or an American citizen, he would be a swimming millionaire. Instead he is is a middle class, South African, swimmer who has had to deal with extraordinary adversity by way of little economic support, threats and insults among other hardships from his very own sports governing body.But get this: Some of his team members have gone through worse.
Snippets from Sport 24 website: "... Beijing - South African sporting authorities left Natalie du Toit badly in the lurch only hours before her historic Olympic debut.[Open water swimmer missing a leg.]
They among others allegedly:
• Refused to find her accommodation near her competition venue
• Screamed at her and her coach when they asked for the help of a translator of the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC)
• Forced her to wear a sponsor's shoes with uncomfortable heels even though she couldn't walk with them due to her disability
These revelations come amid serious criticism of the poor performance by SA athletes in Beijing. [...]
"... Ryk Neethling told how he had to break up a fight between the SA swimming captain Gerhard Zandberg and Roland Schoeman about comments that Zandberg had made. After Neethling tried to make peace, he feared that Swimming SA's head coach Dirk Lange would hit him. ..." [Link]
