It was a day six South African amateur sports
fanatics will never forget. Not only did they get to watch the best
athletes in the world perform live, but they also got to meet two of South
Africa’s Olympic Gold Medallists, thanks to the Powerade, the Official Sports
Drink of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Sports fans from around the world are spending a week at the
Powerade Sport Academy where they are ‘Training Like An Olympian’. The
opportunity is part of the Powerade drive to give amateur athletes, who live
and breathe sport every day, an opportunity to improve their own performance.
Day two say the athletes spend a morning at the Olympic
Stadium and the afternoon at the Olympic Village.
“This has definitely been the best day of my life,”
said Amos Rangata, a school teacher at Spruitview in the East Rand,
Gauteng. “Today we got to meet the best athletes in the world and we had
perhaps the best seats in the house at the Olympic Stadium.”
For Eugene Strauss this was also a day he will brag
about for years to come. “The atmosphere in the stadium was electric and
we were fortunate to see the 110m hurdles, 800m, 1500m, discus and shot put
events. Seeing the action from so close made me realize just how amazing these
athletes are. The rhythm with which they performed their respective disciplines
reaffirmed the lesson from the day before regarding the importance of Rhythm in
exercise and sport,” said Strauss.
Strauss was impressed with the security around the
Olympic Village. “The significant security checks required was a clear
indication of just how privileged we were to get into the village. Then
to walk around and everywhere we looked were athletes we have seen on
television! We bumped into the likes of Justin Gatlin, Missy Franklin and
the highlight for Powerade team SA was when we bumped into our Gold medal
heroes Chad Le Clos and Cameron Van Den Berg! Two great guys who made us very
proud! After a quick chat with these two we got some priceless pictures with
our Pool heroes.”
The evening was spent socializing with fellow athletes
from around the world followed by a good night’s rest ahead of another day of
training.
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