By Jon Herskovitz
JOHANNESBURG, June 15 (Reuters) – One is white and the
offspring of a South African yachting great. The other is black
and hails from a shantytown set up by the defunct apartheid
regime as a ghetto.
Together, Roger Hudson and Asenathi Jim are the South
African entry for the two-man 470 sailing event at the London
Olympics. They see themselves as symbols of the multi-racial
country former President Nelson Mandela was trying to forge.
“We are going to be a light in South Africa – a good
combination in and out of the water,” Jim told Reuters.
The two are long shots for medals, having only been together
for about 18 months in an event where the world’s top pairs have
usually been sailing partners for at least a decade.
The two are the unlikeliest of shipmates.
Hudson, now in his early 30s, grew up in the world of
sailing, long associated with affluence. Jim, 20, comes from the
Red Hill township overlooking the waters near Cape Town, a place
whose streets of broken asphalt are a world away from the
pristine yacht clubs dotting the coast.
As a teen, Jim joined the Izivungu Sailing School, aimed at
building self-esteem and sailing skills among the legions of
poor black youth whose lives have improved little since
white-minority apartheid rule ended in 1994.
Jim, who goes by the nickname “squirrel”, took to the water
like a duck, moving into the crew assembled by RaceAhead, set up
by Roger Hudson and his father David Hudson, who represented
South Africa at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and managed the
country’s team at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
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