Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 117, April 2019 | Page 39

MULTISPORT
and just take it one day at a time. “At the age of six
he desperately wanted to water-ski, even though he
couldn’t walk. He was committed, and after various
operations he could walk with the aid of a walker and
a stick. Soon after his first steps, he water-skied, and
so his incredible journey began,” Nancy recalls.
Rory quickly came to love sports, participating where
he could. Whilst training for a 5km walk in 2017,
he hurt his knees and had to rest for three weeks.
“Not something Rory took lightly – in fact, he was
despondent,” says Nancy. As consolation, one of
Nancy’s friends, Merle Finch, organised for Rory to
ride in a chariot at the 94.7 Cycle Challenge, which is
where he and Marc got paired up through TNT. “Marc
Kourie became his mate, his idol, his brother in arms.
That relationship is one that is hard to quantify,” says
Nancy.
Future Plans to Race
TNT, where he trains and encourages his patients to
take part in the 94.7 and then finds cyclists to pull and
push the patients in a chariot. Rory was my chariot
patient-partner, and little did I know we’d become
mates.”
a non-profit organisation that currently supports 19
registered children’s charities in South Africa. “I hope
Team Batman’s story will inspire others to become
superheroes in their own way,” he says.
A Mother’s Love
Crossing the 94.7 finish line with Rory gave Marc new
reason to pursue his Ironman dream. “The spirit of
the TNT riders along with the disabled patients was
unbeatable. This is where I saw Rory’s determination,
and realised that his disability means nothing, that he
deserves to cross more finish lines in his life. After the
cycle challenge, I knew we could conquer Ironman,
so I asked him if he’d be keen to do the Ironman 70.3,
and without even knowing what it entailed, the answer
was, ‘Yes, I’ll do batman with you, Marc!’ That’s how
our name, Team Batman, was created.”
Marc adds that he thinks the name is quite fitting,
as he races for the Ironman 4 the Kidz Charity Trust,
Rory’s mother, Nancy, who plays a massive part in
his life, said she has always wanted her son to be
the best he can be, especially after everything he has
been through. “Rory spent the first two years of his
life in Johannesburg General Hospital. Lack of oxygen
while in an incubator left him brain damaged, and I
was told that he would never be able to walk, feed
himself or talk, so the best thing to do was to find an
institution to put him in for others to look after him, as
I wouldn’t be able to care for him,” says Nancy.
After their successful finish in Durban, the intrepid
pair were offered an entry into the 70.3 World
Championships in September last year, also in
Durban, but the lead-up time was too short to prepare
adequately, so they declined the invitation. Fast
forward to 2019 and Marc will be pursuing some
personal goals and races, so the pair have opted not
to compete in an Ironman this year, and will instead
focus more on some of the local races in Gauteng,
especially in the Cradle area.
Meanwhile, Marc says he has been touched by the
plight of Rory and others in a similar situation, so he
has decided to campaign for races to start including
a special category for those who need assistance in
races. “This is just an idea at the moment, and will
need some thinking through in terms of practicalities,
but the way Rory’s face lit up after Ironman, I just feel
that this is something that needs to be done. His Mom
told me he had never experienced anything like that
before, and he wore his medal for days on end until
she eventually persuaded him to take it off.”
However, Nancy refused to leave her son in the care
of others. Instead she took him home and raised
him with his brothers to be as normal as possible,
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