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On behalf of the Freedom Front Plus, congratulations to our Olympic team with their achievements. How does one compare the different countries’ number of medals with each other? The size of a country’s population, and therefore also the size of its Olympic team should certainly be taken into consideration when one draws comparisons. Not to mention the amount of money which these huge countries spend on the preparations of their Olympic participants.

The USA chooses an Olympic Team out of 300 million people. China selects the best athletes from 1 300 million people as opposed to South Africa’s 50 million. When for example the total number of medals of China per capita of the population is calculated, China came 74th and not second. From more than 200 countries, South Africa came 24th and we were the best team in Africa. It is a special achievement and we would like to congratulate you.

Just like in a big family, everyone in South Africa shared in the achievements of every winner who obtained a medal. Remember, victory has many fathers but failure is an orphan.

Just ask Bafana Bafana who hasn’t had a solid victory recently. If we are one sporting family in South Africa, then Bafana Bafana is like that brother who is in jail. You still like him, but you don’t talk about him so often anymore.

Springbok rugby also struggled against Argentina this past weekend and ended in a draw. A draw is not exciting – rugby players say it is like kissing your sister.

Thank you to the medal winners, who made us feel good. The Ministry of Sport and the sporting administrators should look after these athletes very well. We should spend much more money to prepare them for the next Olympic Games and to retain them for South Africa. We cannot afford, like in cricket for example, to lose our best players. At present many South Africans are, for example, playing for Britain against us. Fortunately we won the recent cricket test series. I sent the following message to my British acquaintances: “We won the cricket test series against you because our South Africans were better than your South Africans!” May this not happen to the Olympic team.

Today, (28 August 1983) exactly 29 years ago, Sydney Maree, broke the world record in the 1500 meters in Cologne. In 1981 as a black man he was selected as South Africa’s athlete of the year. I also want to honour everyone who in the past, like Sydney, had excelled and upon which this team can build their achievements.

To members of the team who did not win a medal, remember that there is a huge difference between: I am a failure and I have failed three times. After a hundred failures, you can still make a success. Mohammed Ali, world boxing champion said: “Remember, a heavyweight match is 15 rounds. If you lose a few rounds, or even get knocked down, it doesn’t matter as long as you eventually get up and eventually win. The same in life. The ability to consistently rebound from setbacks and disappointments is the mark of a champion.”