It's a horror show for SA at the Olympics

South Africa's Olympic athletes face a last-minute countdown to what could end as one of the country's most dismal showings ever at the Games.

The Beijing Olympics ends on Sunday and Team SA's 134-strong team - the largest South Africa has sent to any Olympic Games, pre and post-isolation - has only a silver medal to show for its efforts, courtesy of long jumper Kgotso Mokoena this week.

South Africa's poor medal count has largely been blamed on a severe lack of funding for our Olympians and the chaotic state of administration within Sascoc.

Thursday was a disastrous 24 hours for Team SA.

Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, South Africa's silver medallist from Athens in 2004, finished sixth in his semifinal and failed to qualify for the final of the men's 800m, and kayaker Shaun Rubenstein and javelin thrower Robert Oosthuizen
failed in what has been dubbed Black Thursday.

To rub salt in the wounds, the South African 4x100m men's relay team crashed out in the opening heats when they did not complete the baton zone.

And earlier on Friday BMX hopeful Sifiso Nhlapo spectacularly crashed while eliminating several other riders from the race.

Remaining medal hopes are few and far between, though Hendrick Ramaala, the country's hope in the men's marathon, is hoping for a final day flourish on the streets of Beijing on Sunday.

Mountain bike cyclist Burry Stander and canoeist Jennifer Hodgson are also still to complete their events.

South Africa is currently ranked 63rd in the world in terms of medal placings and, should the medal count remain unchanged, it would mean our worst performance since readmission at the Barcelona Games in 1992.

South Africa won two medals in 1992, five in Atlanta in 1996, five in Sydney in 2000 and six in Athens four years ago - the latter from a squad of 106 athletes.

Before the Beijing Games began, Moss Mashishi, president of the country's Olympic body Sascoc, said: "We should be in the top 10 to 15 countries in the world and we have plans to rectify the situation. But it's not going to happen overnight. We've embarked on a programme that will see us deliver tangible results."

Even so, Sascoc had set as its target 10 medals six from swimming, three from track and field athletics and one from rowing.

These figures were postulated by analysing competitors ranked in the top five in the world in their respective codes and disciplines.

And Team SA';s disappointing on-field performances have been matched with a number of off-field embarrassments including poor quality apparel, poor taste in shoes and the ill-fated Ekhaya exhibition village which started a week after the opening ceremony.

Mashishi has repeatedly offered the explanation that lack of funding has been their most severe handicap. "Between Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, R60-million was spent on preparing our athletes during the same period Australia spent some 485 million Australian dollars
(R3,6-billion)."

Professor Tim Noakes, director of UCT's Sports Science Institute, said part of the reason for this was that the private sector had largely abandoned the Olympic team.

"We're noticing the change now but it started very long ago because of mismanagement," he said. Private enterprise notices this.

"South Africa hasn't invested in sport for the past 10 to 15 years. Every other country has shown that if you invest you get results.

"If you want to be competitive, you have to be serious and professional. In South Africa we're so arrogant we think we can put the athletes on a plane and they will win gold."

South Africa's star of the previous Olympics, Roland Schoeman, has already made a public plea for the South African public to be understanding of the team's performance.

"There are going to be a lot of the public out there who will criticise us and say we suck, and we're useless, and there will be some who will understand. But they should know we're not funded like the Americans, Australians
and Europeans," he said.

Mashishi has promised an improved performance in 2012. "There has to be a systematic approach to our Olympic sport," said Mashishi.

"Sascoc is going to have to look at prioritising different codes, and giving them extra assistance, in terms of finance and administrative support."