Kerwin Noemdo (2012) and Christian Sadie (2015) were recently seen in action at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Kerwin took part in the Shot Put F46 and Christian in the 50m Freestyle S7, 100m Backstroke S7, 100m Breaststroke SB7, 50m Butterfly S7 and 200m Individual Medley SM7 and Kerwin was placed fourth in his event at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
“The feeling of excitement really came over me during the opening ceremony when we walked out into the stadium. That was quite breathtaking,” said Kerwin when interviewed by MatieMedia on his return to South Africa.
Read here about his journey to the Olympics and his experiences at the Games.
Alhoewel hy nie daarvoor op die podium was nie, het hy ook die Afrika-rekord in die 200m individuele wisselslag twee keer verbeter.
We received this mail from Christian’s coach, Keith Jansen:
“Our time here in Tokyo is coming to an end: A five year plan that unfortunately unfolded into something completely different from what we planned. With that said, I definitely believe there is a bigger plan to why it had to be like it played out. Myself and Christian, for the past year that I worked with him, have only experienced the Great. We have never been in a position where we had to really deal with disappointment. God wanted us to trust His plan and not our plan.
“We are forced now to support each other when our emotions are low, when we feel down. Yet our relationship together has withstood this. It’s not in our power to decide if we are ready for being a Paralympic Champion and all the pressure and responsibility that comes with it. No, God knows what is right for us at the right time. We did not understand in the beginning what we are in for. Only after the 50m Freestyle did I know what was going on. We adjusted and managed to reflect, refocus and change and swim the fastest 50 Fly he has ever gone before. In fact with that time, he would have been placed 3rd at the 2016 Paralympic Games. It was the fastest 50 fly at Paralympic history for Christian’s class if I recall correctly over all. There were only 2 over 29sec swims in that race.
“Yes, unfortunately Christian moved on the block, but still we managed to see the positive again to deal with a negative.
Just to give a bit of perspective:
“A year ago, when we managed to really start working on the Tokyo plan and we knew it was going to go ahead, we did not even plan to make a final. It started off with ‘let’s try and make the team’. Then after a few months, that shifted to ‘let’s see if we can break all the SA records in 1 year’. Just keep in mind that Christian holds all the records, so that means that he will need to be better than his best to do that. After a month or two, that shifted to a push to try and swim 5 Paralympic MQS times. Only 2 Paralympians in history have done so in SA. Charl Bower and Nats du Toit. At that stage Christian did not really swim Backstroke so much. After Senior Nationals, he broke 4 SA records, qualifying for 5 paralympic events. He just missed out on the 50 fly unfortunately. Suddenly he jumped from being ranked top 15 in the world to top 5 in the world, within such a short time frame. If you look at where we started, Christian might have made one final if he was lucky. Now, a year later with hard training and a hell of a lot of sacrifices, he has managed to swim 3 finals, finish 5th and 6th in the world and is still not displaying what he is truly capable of.”
