A great variety of sports are played in South Africa.   South Africa until recently was banned from international competition.  The ban was lifted for most sports in 1990.  In the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta South African athletes won 5 Medals (3 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze).

The main sports are:-

Cricket

World Cup Record

1992 Semi-finalists

1996 Quater-finalists

South African Team

Captain: Hansie Cronjé

Coach: Bob Woolmer

The current South African cricket team is unofficially thought of as the best one day cricket team.  There is no official ranking in Test match cricket, but experts believe South Africa rank in the top 3.  Gary Kirsten holds the World Cup record for most number of runs in an innings 188 Not Out.

Golf

1996 World Cup Winners (Ernie Els & Wayne Westner)

1997 Alfred Dunhill champions( Ernie  Els, Retief Goosen and David Frost)

Top Players

Gary Player : Considered one the worlds greatest golfers of all time.  Player won 9 Major titles in his career ( 3 US Masters, 1 US Open , 3 British Open, 2 US PGA).  He also one the World Matchplay 5 times and was runner-up once.

Ernie Els : Currently ranked 2nd in the world.  Has been as high as number 1. Winner of the US Open 2 times (1994, 1997).  He has also one the World Matchplay 3 times and was runner-up once. He holds the record for most consecutive World Matchplay titles 3.

Rugby

World Cup Record

1995 World Cup Champions

South African Team

Coach: Nick Mallet

       Captain: Gary Teichman

Nick Name: Ama Bokke Bokke

South Africa is one of the top 3 teams in the world with Australia and New Zealand.  These 3 southern hemisphere teams have dominated world rugby for the last few years.  The famous 1995 victory over New Zealand 15-12 which won South Africa the World Cup, united the country in a way that politicians have never been able to do.

Running

1996 Olympic Marathon Champion: Josiah Thugwane

1996 Olympic 800m Silver Medallist: Hezekiel Sepeng

The biggest annual running event is the Comrades marathon.  This ultra-marathon is run over a distance of 89 km generally, but has been as long as 91 km and as short as 86 km.  The run is run from Durban too Pietermaritzburg the up run one year, the next year they run the other direction, the down run. The most wins by Bruce Fordyce  stands at 9.  He also held both up and down run records at one time.   The up run record is held by Dmitri Grishine(1998) and down run by Bruce Fordyce(1986).

Soccer

World Cup Record

1998: Qualified for the first time

1998: First round (3rd in group C)

African Cup of Nations

1996: African Cup of Nations Winners

1998: Runners-up

South African Team

Coach: -

Captain: Lucas Radebe

Nick Name: Bafana Bafana (The Boys, The Boys)

South African soccer is suffering like other developing nations of their players been drawn overseas by lucrative contracts.  Soccer stills remains the most popular sport, but the other sports are growing in popularity.  South African club teams have won African cups, but a World Cup match win will have to wait for 2002.

Tennis

Tennis in South Africa is struggling.  The SA Open has faded out of existence because of lack of sponsorship.  The SA Open was, at one stage, one of the premier tournaments after the Grand Slam tournaments. 

Top South African Players

Amanda Coetzer : Ranked 4th in the world.

Wayne Ferreira: Formerly in the top 10, but dropped down because of recent injuries.

Many promising juniors are starting to prove themselves such as Wesley Whitehouse. Hopefully a South African will eventually win a Grand Slam tournament.

Designed and published by Narelle Otten, Grethe Scott, Bruce Thomas. Team 22897.

Cricket

Golf

Rugby

Running

Soccer

Tennis