The Blitzboks will rely heavily on their hot-stepping try scorer Shilton van Wyk when their bid to win a first Olympic gold medal starts tomorrow afternoon in Paris.
Van Wyk, 24, is one of seven Springbok Sevens players who will be making their debuts at the Olympic Games this week and the speedster is looking forward to creating more memories with the side as part of Team South Africa in the French capital.
Hailing from the small West Coast town of Saldanha Bay, he hopes his participation in arguably the biggest sporting event in the world will also inspire more kids to dream big and chase their goals. He says representing South Africa at the Olympic Gamest was never part of his goals while he was growing up, but he will definitely grab the opportunity with both hands.
“It’s probably the biggest achievement in my family, and that is a big privilege,” Van Wyk said about his participation at the Games.
“The week before we heard, I was really nervous and that morning of the announcement, I told myself ‘the day is here’. But I was always positive that I’d put in the work. The nerves were there and with the announcement, the butterflies were going wild in my tummy.
“I think this is also a big thing for the people of Saldanha. We are a small fishermen town on the West Coast. I want to go out and play for them, everyone from my community.
“We have so much talent and I want to show them that despite your circumstances, you can achieve great things if you put the hard work and effort in.”
The Blitzboks will face Ireland at 5.30pm and New Zealand at 9.30pm tomorrow, while their third pool game is against Japan on Thursday at 4pm. A lot of hard work will have to go into the first two matches to progress, while the clash with the Japanese also won’t be a walk in the park.
They’ve won nine matches so far at the Olympics and lost only three. They fell short in their semi-final against Great Britain at Rio 2016, where they eventually won bronze, and in the quarters against Argentina in Tokyo 2021.
They also had a tough overall season in the SVNS Series and Van Wyk knows they’ll have to spark to make good on their medal hopes.
“There are some quality sides in our group and we are aware of that. No team we face will be easy to overcome. Every match will be tough and we have to go into every game and give it our all.
“But how we’ve been preparing this last month ahead of the Games, it will do us good. We were together as a squad for a while and the bond grew stronger between us, compared to four months ago.
“I believe we can only build on that ahead of the matches.”