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Wayde van Niekerk set for 200m at Paris games while Luxolo Adams continues legal battle for place

Wayde van Niekerk set for 200m at Paris games while Luxolo Adams continues legal battle for place
Luxolo ADAMS of South Africa in action MenÕs 100m heats during day 5 of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023 at National Athletics Centre on August 23, 2023 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Anton Geyser/Gallo Images)
Keanan Hemmonsbey
By Keanan Hemmonsbey
16 Jul 2024
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The 35 athletes who will represent South Africa inside the Olympic Stadium at the Paris Olympic Games have been announced, with Luxolo Adams’s name omitted despite making the initial squad.

South Africa’s list of track and field athletes for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games has been published by World Athletics with 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk only listed for the 200m event.

A fortnight before the quadrennial sporting event, controversy and turbulence has hit the South African sprinters as 200m runner Luxolo Adams – who was part of the initial squad announced in May – has been withdrawn from the squad by Athletics South Africa (ASA).

Van Niekerk, who was initially set to run the 400m as well as the 4x400m relay, will take his place.

Van Niekerk, instead, will not run the half-lap event, in which his world record of 43.03 seconds, set at the 2016 Rio Games, still stands.

Adams was a part of the squad as recently as 5 July, when his name was included as part of a South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) press release on the day.

The 200m sprinter has taken legal action against Athletics South Africa (ASA) in an effort to get his spot back on the team.

Luxolo Adams Luxolo Adams competes in the 200m heats during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary, on 23 August 2023. (Photo: Anton Geyser / Gallo Images)



Adams has a blistering personal-best 19.82 seconds in the event, ironically set in Paris in 2022, but has had an injury-plagued season, racing only once, as he worked on rehabilitating his hamstring.

Adams competed in his favoured event on 6 July in Italy, but only managed a meagre 21.50 seconds.

He was set to compete again in Hungary on 9 July but withdrew, which prompted ASA to believe he would not be ready to compete at the Olympics.

Conversely, Van Niekerk, who has been running more 200m than 400m events this year, has a season-best time of 20.29 seconds, which, while quick, is not likely to be good enough to make the finals of the half-lap distance in Paris.

The thinking around Van Niekerk running the shorter sprint is to strengthen the relay teams. Van Niekerk is eligible to run the 4x100m and the 4x400m relays, the latter having an especially good chance of bagging a medal.

The 400m record holder is, however, not on either of the official relay teams as yet, as published by World Athletics.

The 4x100m team comprises Sinesipho Dambile, Shaun Maswanganyi, Bradley Nkoana, Akani Simbine Benjamin Richardson and Bayanda Walaza, who is in matric. The 4x400m team, as set out by World Athletics, is: Gardeo Isaacs, Zakithi Nene, Antonie Nortje, Lythe Pillay and Adrian Swart.

Wayde van Niekerk Wayde van Niekerk in the 200m final during the ASA Senior Track and Field, Combined Events and Relay Championships in Pietermaritzburg on 20 April 2024. (Photo: Darren Stewart / Gallo Images)


Gayton gets involved


New Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie has taken to social media to seek clarity on Adams’s exclusion from the Olympic squad.

“We are attending to this matter. The department has made contact with the presidents of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee and Athletics South Africa. We await their responses,” he said on X.

McKenzie also posted a photo of a press statement that Adams put out, expressing the “disheartening” experience of being removed from the squad.

Adams said he was informed about his exclusion “via WhatsApp”.

“I was informed via WhatsApp that I would be withdrawn from the team due to an unsubstantiated ‘perceived lack of fitness’ among other things,” his statement read.

“This decision came just three weeks before the Olympic Games and was communicated to me through an informal and distressing method, showing a lack of respect, professionalism, consistency, and lack of consideration for my mental health.”

Adams also reiterated his ongoing quest for “legal intervention”.

“I am currently seeking urgent legal intervention to prevent Athletics South Africa (ASA) from removing me from the team, which I qualified for, and for them to be transparent and consistent in their processes and selection.”

Luxolo Adams in action in the 100m heats at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on 23 August 2023. (Photo: Anton Geyser / Gallo Images)


Selection process


There are three ways to be selected for South Africa’s Olympic track team: Through reaching the set Olympic qualifying times, through global rankings or as part of a relay team.

ASA has an experienced committee which makes these decisions and sends the proposed squads to Sascoc for ratification.

The committee debates selections based on form, best times and potential, among other criteria. While admirable, and no doubt with the best interests of the athletes and the country at heart when making these decisions, the open-endedness of the process leaves space for biases, dissatisfied athletes and, as has now been proven, court cases.

Luxolo Adams competes in the 100m heats at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on 23 August 2023. (Photo: Anton Geyser / Gallo Images)



Jamaica and the US have found a way to avoid conflict between athletes and their athletics bodies by having a cutthroat system of qualification: Olympic trials.

Those countries hold their trials a month before the Games, where all potential athletes battle it out for a spot. The top three athletes in each event qualify for the Games, despite previous records, form or reputation outside the trials.

This system is brutal, and world-beating athletes who have one bad day could miss the Games. But it is effective and also avoids situations like the one ASA and Sascoc are facing with Adams and Van Niekerk. DM

South Africa’s official Olympic track and field team:


Men: Akani Simbine (100m, 4x100m), Shaun Maswanganyi (100m, 200m 4x100m), Benjamin Richardson (100m, 200m, 4x100m), Wayde van Niekerk (200m), Lythe Pillay (400m, 4x400m), Zakithi Nene (400m, 4x400m), Edmund du Plessis (800m), Tshepo Tshite (1,500m), Ryan Mphahlele (1,500m), Adriaan Wildschutt (10,000m), Stephen Mokoka (marathon), Elroy Gelant (marathon), Jovan van Vuuren (long jump), Cheswill Johnson (long jump), Brian Raats (high jump), Kyle Blignaut (shot put), Francois Prinsloo (discus), Victor Hogan (discus), Sinesipho Dambile (4x100m), Bayanda Walaza (4x100m) Bradley Nkoana (4x100m), Adrian Swart (4x400m), Gardeo Isaacs (4x400m), Antonie Nortje (4x400m).

Women: Miranda Coetzee (400m), Prudence Sekgodiso (800m), Gerda Steyn (marathon), Cian Oldknow (marathon), Irvette van Zyl (marathon), Marioné Fourie (100m hurdles), Zeney Geldenhuys (400m hurdles), Rogail Joseph (400m hurdles), Jo-Ane van Dyk (javelin), Miné de Klerk (shot put), Ashley Erasmus (shot put).

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