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INLSA<\/p>\n
Cameron van der Burgh, SA’s Olympic gold medallist, says waking up next to his medal the morning after his 100m breaststroke win was like waking up next to a beautiful woman.<\/p>\n
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For Olympic gold medallist Cameron van der Burgh, waking up next to his medal the morning after his 100m breaststroke win was \u201clike waking up next to a beautiful woman\u201d. <\/p>\n
And given a choice between which sight he would rather take in first thing in the morning, the heavy chunk of gold-plated metal would be it. <\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely the medal,\u201d he said, no hint of indecision in his voice, and his expression steely and serious. \u201cI have sacrificed so much for it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Although recovering from flu, 24-year-old Van der Burgh was relaxed yesterday, before this weekend\u2019s qualifier for the 11th Fina World Champion-ships to be held in Turkey in December. <\/p>\n
He and fellow gold medal winner Chad le Clos were among the swimmers staying at the Golden Horse Casino in Pietermaritzburg, preparing for the SA Short Course Championships to be held in the city. <\/p>\n
Leaning back in his chair, with his hands behind his head, Van der Burgh explained why being an Olympic gold medallist held more value than the gold medal reward of R400 000 from the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc). <\/p>\n
\u201cFor the rest of my life, I will be known as an Olympic champion. It\u2019s like being knighted and called \u2018Sir\u2019\u2026 I am really grateful for the incentive (from Sascoc), but the medal is worth more.\u201d <\/p>\n
Worth more than money? Perhaps, But is it enough? Not exactly. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to be remembered as the guy who won a gold medal, but as the guy who left a legacy, who turned swimming around in the country. At the moment people are now interested in swimming (as a sport), so we have to keep that momentum going. <\/p>\n
\u201cBefore this, we never had an Olympic culture, but now we have instilled that. We have so much talent here in South Africa.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, it is not only the future of swimming that Van Der Burgh wants to influence, but the financial gains associated with it, and having an Olympic gold, he believes, is a stroke in the right direction. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to first put in the hard work. Sponsorships will only come in when you get |the results,\u201d he said, emphasising that he was \u201cwell looked after\u201d. <\/p>\n
Quoting his manager, former Olympic gold medalist Ryk Neethling, Van der Burgh said the medal should be able to generate R2m to R4m a year from sponsorships, retainers and bonuses. <\/p>\n
He conceded that the rewards could be considered \u201cunfair\u201d when compared with the substantial amounts of money paid to local soccer and rugby players. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I can\u2019t complain [about the R400 000 incentive]; it\u2019s better than R200 000. And Sascoc always said that the reward would be R400 000. Besides, they have been funding me for the past three years, so now I was able to pay them back,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Van der Burgh said his medal \u2013 which is going to be put in safe keeping at a banking institution \u2013 was also a way of thanking his family who had footed much of the bill for his years of training, and had made many sacrifices for him to attain his success. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis medal means everything to me\u2026 Even if I was to become a hobo, I would be a hobo with a medal,\u201d he laughed. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Durban\u2019s Olympic gold and silver medal champion, Le Clos, said he had not decided if he would go to the matric dance of a Joburg matric pupil who asked him to accompany her when he arrived home last week. <\/p>\n
\u201cA decision will only be made next week. I cannot comment further on that,\u201d Le Clos told The Mercury yesterday. <\/p>\n
Beeld reported that Melanie Olhaus, 17, a pupil at Glenvista High School, held up a poster, which read: \u201cChad, will you be my matric dance date?\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Cameron van der Burgh, SA’s Olympic gold medallist, says waking up next to his medal the morning after his 100m breaststroke win was like waking up next to a beautiful woman. For Olympic gold medallist Cameron van der Burgh, waking up next to his medal the morning after his 100m breaststroke win was \u201clike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-13601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}