No Track, No Coach, No Problem: Matthew Quinn is Finding SA’s Hidden Talent!

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South Africa’s next Olympic champion could be sitting in a rural classroom right now, with no athletics track, no equipment and no idea how talented they actually are.

Former Olympian and World Champion Matthew Quinn is trying to change that through Track+Field, a programme taking athletics into schools across all nine provinces and giving young South Africans the opportunity to compete.

One of those youngsters is Thabo, who attended a school without an athletics programme. He discovered javelin on YouTube, carved himself a stick and taught himself how to throw. Through Track+Field, he finally got the chance to compete against other young athletes.

It’s particularly important when you consider that Parliament was told this year that more than 9,000 South African schools have no sports facilities at all.

Matt’s mission is simple: find the kids nobody has discovered yet, give them an opportunity and, perhaps, find South Africa’s next world or Olympic champion along the way.

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23 Sep English South Africa Society & Culture · Daily News

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