Talk about taking the tough road. For South African BMX superstar Sifiso ‘Skizo’ Nhlapo, the journey to the 2012 London Olympics has been a difficult one. He’s suffered not one, but two career- threatening injuries and he was further hampered by a lack of an Olympic-spec training track here in his own country.
Despite breaking his neck in 2009 and then tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in Feb 2010, Nhlapo is now fit, strong and healthy: “Thanks to a lot of help and support, I am fully recovered.
I’m in good shape at the right time.” That, however, is only half the battle.
Unlike most other countries with potential gold medal-winning riders, South Africa does not have an Olympic-spec BMX supercross track on which Nhlapo can hone his skills and sharpen his race strategy. “I understand that it would be pretty expensive,” he says, “but I also think there is a lot more we could do in this country. I can’t worry too much about that, though – it’s outside my control. At the end of the day it’s up to Cycling South Africa and the national Olympic committee. They do obviously have other Olympic priorities. On the other hand, along with mountain biking, BMX is the only other realistic Olympic cycling medal the SA team could win.” It’s for this reason Nhlapo spends up to eight months each year outside the country, splitting his time between the US and Europe in order to practice and compete on top-level tracks.
At the moment he’s in the UK trying to get some time on London’s Olympic Park track. Getting precious practise time overseas is difficult. Those countries with cycling federations who can afford to build Olympic-spec tracks have been more than a little reluctant to let top riders from other nations practise on their facility. “I’ve spent most of my time in the US this year and they’ve been pretty sticky about allowing any outsiders to use their track. In fact, when their team is training there, it’s a total blackout and no one’s allowed near the track.”
www.skizo105.com
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