Ma
Feature
The Ultimate
Comeback
Not so long ago it appeared that long jumper Luvo Manyonga’ s athletics career was over, but after turning his life around and completing a remarkable comeback, he won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, and now he is aiming for still more honours.
– BY KYLE DEELEY & SEAN FALCONER
A top level athletic career is usually only a few years long, and it can take an athlete a number of years, including those allimportant formative years in the junior ranks, to work up to the level needed to compete at Olympic, World Champs and Diamond League level. Many athletes then only stay at that level for a short period of time, so they have to make the most of their peak athletic years, and thus losing a few years for a positive drugs test can spell the end of an athlete’ s career, because coming back to top level competition can be even harder than getting there in the first place.
That said, long jumper Luvo Manyonga didn’ t just come back to compete again. He went all the way to the Rio Olympics last August and brought home a silver medal thanks to his soaring 8.37m leap.“ The Olympics for me was the most incredible thing I have ever experienced. I had an incredible few days and I knew it was my time to reach for the stars. I knew I had what it took and I made sure I did what needed to be done,” says Luvo, typically humble about what is one of the ultimate comeback stories!
Jumping to Stardom
Luvo’ s athletic talent was spotted when he was attending Desmond Tutu High School in the Mbekweni township on the outskirts of Paarl, in the Boland area. At the 2009 Boland regional track and field champs, he was closely watched by the late Mario Smith, then one of the coaches at the University of Stellenbosch.“ Mario noticed my talent after watching me jump, and told me I had the most perfect technique he had ever seen, and that I had serious potential,” says Luvo.
That saw the youngster start training with Mario at Maties, and his first international success soon followed at the 2009 African Junior Champs in Bambous, Mauritius, where he jumped 7.49m for the bronze medal. He ended the year with a new best of 7.65m, then broke through the eight-metre barrier in 2010 with a massive 8.19m jump in Germany, which is still the African and South African Junior Record, and followed that with a 7.99m jump to win the gold medal at the 2010 Junior World Champs in Moncton, Canada.
With a bright career seemingly ahead of him, Luvo turned professional in 2011, and describes it as a major milestone:“ Competing as a professional was incredible. I met new people and had to compete against some of the best in the world, and this for me was an amazing achievement.” In July that year he jumped 8.26m in Finland, climbing to second on the all-time SA list, then finished fifth with an 8.21m jump in the final of his first Senior World Champs in Daegu, South Korea. Just two weeks later he was in action again at the All-Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique, winning the gold medal thanks to an 8.02m jump, and he says“ This was possibly the greatest experience of my life to that point. I had won my first real gold medal.”
From Hero to Villain
But then it all went horribly wrong. In March 2012, following drug testing at a national meet, it was announced that he had tested positive for a banned substance. However, instead of it being for one of the usual performance-enhancing substances, it turned out to be the recreational
Images: Reg Caldecott
18 ISSUE 91 FEBRUARY 2017 / www. modernathlete. co. za