Hockey star Onthatile Zulu ready to reach new heights at Games where SA side promises to raise the bar

SA’s Nicolene Terblanche (centre) during the Investec International Series match against Ireland in 2012.Photo: Duif du Toit/Gallo Images/Getty Images

By Keanan Hemmonsbey

21 Jul 2024

Midfielder Onthatile Zulu and her teammates are hoping to reach the quarterfinal stage at the Olympic Games for the first time.

When South Africa’s women’s hockey team steps on to the Astroturf at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium on 29 July for their first Olympic Games match, against Argentina, they will be regarded as massive underdogs.

South Africa enter their sixth Olympics in Paris with the second-worst ranking spot out of the 12 teams that qualified, and Argentina are fighting for pole position in second place.

What the South African side do have is a diminutive but dynamic midfielder capable of countering the swift Argentinians.

Onthatile Zulu is only 24 years old but has been a mainstay at the heart of the South African midfield for the past five years.

Zulu made her debut for South Africa in 2019 during a qualifying tournament for the Tokyo Olympics and, despite being only 19 at the time, never let go of her place in the side.

“[My debut] was an eye opener for me in terms of working hard and making sure that I stay in the team,” Zulu told Daily Maverick.

“That was an amazing experience and I didn’t want it to end then. I made sure to work hard to stay in the team and it paid off.”

South Africa have set steep goals of reaching the quarterfinal stage at the 2024 Games. The side has never finished above 10th in the 12-team tournament.

“We’ve worked really hard and have been travelling a lot and trying to get as much exposure [as possible] and playing European countries because we don’t usually get those opportunities,” Zulu said.

“We’re the only African country going to the Olympics, which makes it even more special and is a big driving force for us to reach the quarterfinal.”

SA hockey Onthatile Zulu Onthatile Zulu of South Africa during the Summer Series fifth Test against France in Cape Town on 26 January 2024. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman / Gallo Images)

Journey to the top

Born and raised in Pretoria, Zulu took up hockey haphazardly as a six-year-old after being forced to choose an extracurricular activity in primary school.

Zulu’s mother, who serves as an inspiration for the midfielder, bought a hockey stick a few weeks later for the youngster, whose interest in the sport skyrocketed from there.

“I started playing and never stopped playing,” she said.

“I started making the Northerns [provincial] team at around 15 but it was the B and C teams. I just really enjoyed the team aspect of things.

“I only started noticing that I could make a career out of it at under-18 [level] when I started making the [Northerns] A team.”

Zulu made the South African schools side while in matric at Cornwall Hill College and continued to pursue her career ambitions in her first year of tertiary education at the University of Pretoria, where she studied towards a bachelor of commerce degree in business management.

“I was lucky enough to have a coach who understood me and knew a lot about me regarding my strengths and weaknesses,” Zulu said. “He believed in me and was able to convert me from a school-level hockey player into an elite hockey player. That’s what allowed me to be exposed to being near the national team.”

By August, in her first year of university study, Zulu was in the national squad.

“I finished my studies in 2022 and now I’m sitting with 56 caps for SA,” she said.

Hard work

The South African women’s hockey side continues to dominate in Africa. In 10 Africa Cup of Nations and African Games tournaments since 1994, the women’s side clinched gold in all of them.

South Africa’s road to the Paris Olympic Games was also relatively plain sailing, as they defeated Nigeria 9-0 in the final of the qualifying tournament last year.

But it’s on the global stage where the side has struggled.

At the most recent Commonwealth Games, hosted in Birmingham in 2022, South Africa only secured two victories out of five, exiting at the group stage and finishing seventh.

The last Olympics in Tokyo were particularly horrid for the side because for the first time they failed to win a match.

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Preparation for the quadrennial event last time proved a major stumbling block for the side, however, with the Covid-19 pandemic pushing the Olympics back a year and travel restrictions implemented globally.

“Preparation has been really long but we definitely needed it before heading into the Olympics,” Zulu said about the difference in preparation this time round.

“If I think about 2021 with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, we didn’t have much preparation because of all the travel restrictions.

“We’re just really grateful that this year we’ve been able to get the preparation that we need before heading into the big tournament.

“We’ve done really well in terms of progress in these past few weeks and we’re just trying to keep up the little things that we’re trying to fix and get better at.

SA hockey South Africa’s Nicolene Terblanche (centre) during an Investec International Series match against Ireland in 2012. (Photo: Duif du Toit / Gallo Images / Getty Images)

“The exposure allows us to identify our weaknesses and try to fix them as soon as possible before we get into the Village and play our first game.

“By the time we get into the Village we’ll be peaking.”

The lack of readiness in Tokyo is something Zulu has vowed never to settle for again.

“For such a prestigious event, you can’t go in there without any preparation. That’s definitely a lesson I learnt,” she said. “Physically and mentally you need to prepare yourself in advance for what’s to come because you’re up against the best of the best in the world.”

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South Africa’s women’s side promises to raise the bar in Paris, and Zulu herself is ready to reach new heights.

“In 2021 I was a young player coming into the setup, not really knowing what to expect and just trying to play to the best of my abilities without any preparation,” Zulu said. “In a way I was thrown into the deep end. I’ll be better than I was at the previous Olympics. I’ve got a different mindset now.”

Although Zulu acknowledged that she’s playing for a bigger cause at the Olympic Games, the little girl who was handed a hockey stick for the first time by her mother will smile broadly knowing she has made it to the biggest stage, with her mom – who was unable to be in Tokyo because of Covid – cheering her on in the crowd.

“To make it even more special, my mom’s coming to watch me,” Zulu said. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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