Sport in South Africa

South Africa is among a very few countries which have participated in world cups of all three major sports — cricket, soccer, and rugby union.During this time, some sports people (like Zola Budd and Kepler Wessels) left for other countries in order to compete internationally.In 1977, Commonwealth Presidents and Prime Ministers agreed, as part of their support for the international campaign against apartheid, to discourage contact and competition between their sportsmen and sporting organisations, teams or individuals from South Africa.Sports bodies that permit forms of discrimination based on gender, race, disability, religion or creed, are for instance not allowed.Other popular sports include: athletics, basketball, boxing, golf, netball, softball, field hockey, swimming, surfing and tennis.Rugby union is the most popular team sport among white South Africans, but in more recent years has garnered a dedicated following among other ethnic groups.This new alignment to the Northern Hemisphere led to South Africa's inclusion in the European Rugby Champions Cup from 2022.Rugby league (XIII) is a more recently growing spectator sport in South Africa in current years, but it has struggled to gain a foothold in the country due to the popularity of sports such as soccer, rugby union and cricket, and also due to their location, meaning a lack of meaningful international matches.[11][12] South African players who have played professionally in Australasia's NRL and the Super League include Tom Van Vollenhoven (St Helens R.F.C.South Africa is one of the leading cricket-playing nations in the world and one of the twelve countries sanctioned to play test cricket.Dale Steyn is currently ranked as one of the best test bowlers, and former captain Graeme Smith was one of the most dominant left-handed batsmen in recent world cricket history.South Africa hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup an event that was disappointing to them as they tied against Sri Lanka in what happened to be in a farcical situation and were eliminated on home soil.In August 1992, the South African Hockey Association was formed, with the aims of "Creat[ing] opportunities for participation without distinction based on colour, race, creed, religion or gender" and to "Redress historical disparities to allow all to participate and compete equally and specifically address the needs of historically disadvantaged communities through special programmes.The men's teams are the Addo Elephants, Drakensberg Dragons, Garden Route Gazelles, Golden Gate Gladiators, Mapungubwe Mambas and the Maropeng Cavemen.The Golden Gate Gladiators and the Namaqualand Daisies are the South African national U21 teams for men and women respectively.At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, South Korea, the relay team of Shane Victor, Ofentse Mogawane, Willem de Beer and Oscar Pistorius set a national record time of 2:59.21 seconds in the heats.South Africa went on to win a silver medal in the finals with the team of Victor, Mogawane, de Beer and L. J. van Zyl.[23] In 2012 Caster Semenya won a gold medal in the women's 800m of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, with a time of 1:57.23 seconds.The South African team of Pistorius, Arnu Fourie, Zivan Smith and Samkelo Radebe won a gold medal and set a Paralympic record in the 4 × 100 m relay with a time of 41.78 seconds.[29] Durandt had also mentioned that it is almost impossible to hold fights including world title bouts without SABC's support in their own country.[41] In the 2016 Tour de France the team won five stages through Cummings and Mark Cavendish, the latter also wearing the yellow jersey.At the 2013 Tour de France, Daryl Impey became the first African cyclist to wear the yellow jersey as race leader, which he held for two stages.The most famous of South African golfers is however Gary Player who along with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus dominated world golf for much of the 1960s, and 1970s.[47] EFC Africa 01 took place at The Coca-Cola Dome in Northgate, Johannesburg on 10 November 2009 and is now viewing in 110 countries, including United States, Canada, the Caribbean and all over Europe.Their first Women's Flyweight Champion was crowned at EFC 60 when Amanda Lino defeated Jaqualine Trosse in a rematch by armbar in round 2.Another South African, Cameron Saaiman, has won 3 of his fights in the UFC bantamweight division, losing one by decision, and another by TKO.Johan Kriek won the Australian Open final in 1981 (South Africa's only Grand Slam victory to date), before becoming a US citizen in 1982.Other South African Grand Slam finalists include Brian Norton (1921), Irene Bowder Peacock (1927), Eric Sturgess (1947, 1948 & 1951), Ian Vermaak (1959), Sandra Reynolds (1960), Cliff Drysdale (1965) and Kevin Anderson (2017, 2018).The most recent tennis players who made it into the world top ten rankings are Wayne Ferreira, Amanda Coetzer and Kevin Anderson.A number of large canoe events occur annually in South Africa: SA OCR[49] is a not-for-profit company aiming to help grow the sport and provide a means of financial support for athletes wanting to travel to compete internationally.