Wayde van Niekerk’s family story revealed after the gold in Rio2016

Wayde van Niekerk’s family story won the hearts of sports fans all over the world.

Winning an Olympic gold is certainly something demanding lots of efforts and sacrifices. But when it becomes part of unresolved family history then the pressure is even bigger. Yet, Wayde van Niekerk knew how to bear that pressure. Yesterday, as online sportsbooks in Brazil report, he succeed to achieve that for which his mother was only dreaming about.

When discrimination influence sport

His mother, Odessa Swarts, a talented track and field athlete from South Africa didn’t have the possibility that her son had. When the country was under apartheid her chances to enter in the national athletics team amounted to zero. All due to her ethnicity. The Olympics were thus just a dream for the talented Swarts. Many years after, Wayde van Niekerk, not only participated the Olympics, but brought home the gold.

With 43.03 the 24 years old South African runner did not only won a gold medal, but achieved the “impossible”. As internet betting sites in US state, he overcame the spectacular world record by Michael Johnson from the World Championship in Seville in 1999 for 0.15 seconds. This according to athletic experts will definitely stay on the world record table for a long long time.