Team SA launches new series on elite SA athletes - Akani Simbine
Simbine has burning desire to win
In the first of a new series on the elite SA athletes striving to carry the flag at the 2024 Olympics, Team SA looks at speedster Akani Simbine.
When they get around to updating the first page of South African sporting greats, there surely must be room for Akani Simbine’s name. For the longest time he was the fastest man in Africa, the fastest in the Commonwealth. Twice he’s finished in the top five in the Olympic final and three times in the top five in the World Championships final.
In the history of 100m sprinting, only 16 athletes have run faster than the 9.84sec he clocked in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, last July. That 9.84 would have won gold in every men’s 100m Olympic final in history apart from 2008 to 2016 when Usain Bolt stamped himself as the greatest ever.
Simbine secured the 100m silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham to add to gold four years earlier, and is targeting a podium finish at the Paris Olympics having missed out on a medal in Tokyo last year by four-hundredths of a second.
“In 2016 in Rio I finished fifth, but in Tokyo … coming fourth is like the first loser,” said Simbine, who clocked 9.93 in the final after producing a 9.90 in the semi-final. “First, second, third get medals, but fourth doesn’t get anything. Yes, you’re the fourth-fastest man in the world, but it does leave a bitter taste in the mouth.”
The 29-year-old has a quiet air of confidence and self-belief, and bristles at any suggestion he’s a pushover.
“There’s a switch that needs to be flicked, and that normally happens for me when I’m warming up for a race. I’m a calm, chilled person, but when it comes to race time I need to be aggressive and explosive. I need to be the opposite of who I really am. You can’t arrive at a race soft, like a marshmallow. The intensity has to rise. For me that happens when I start warming up.
“Once the warm-up starts, you’re going into war, a fight in the ring. Then, when you’re standing on the line your ego has to come out. You want to be king. You need to feed your ego and your ego wants to be fed.”
No one demands more from Simbine than himself.
“My expectations are such that in the major events anything outside of the top five is a terrible result for me, but I have been in the top five everywhere for years. The difference between a 2016 Akani and a 2022 Akani is that, before, I used to come in and say ‘I want to win a medal’. Now, it’s ‘I want to win’.”
Simbine has burning desire to win
In the first of a new series on the elite SA athletes striving to carry the flag at the 2024 Olympics, Team SA looks at speedster Akani Simbine.
When they get around to updating the first page of South African sporting greats, there surely must be room for Akani Simbine’s name. For the longest time he was the fastest man in Africa, the fastest in the Commonwealth. Twice he’s finished in the top five in the Olympic final and three times in the top five in the World Championships final.
In the history of 100m sprinting, only 16 athletes have run faster than the 9.84sec he clocked in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, last July. That 9.84 would have won gold in every men’s 100m Olympic final in history apart from 2008 to 2016 when Usain Bolt stamped himself as the greatest ever.
Simbine secured the 100m silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham to add to gold four years earlier, and is targeting a podium finish at the Paris Olympics having missed out on a medal in Tokyo last year by four-hundredths of a second.
“In 2016 in Rio I finished fifth, but in Tokyo … coming fourth is like the first loser,” said Simbine, who clocked 9.93 in the final after producing a 9.90 in the semi-final. “First, second, third get medals, but fourth doesn’t get anything. Yes, you’re the fourth-fastest man in the world, but it does leave a bitter taste in the mouth.”
The 29-year-old has a quiet air of confidence and self-belief, and bristles at any suggestion he’s a pushover.
“There’s a switch that needs to be flicked, and that normally happens for me when I’m warming up for a race. I’m a calm, chilled person, but when it comes to race time I need to be aggressive and explosive. I need to be the opposite of who I really am. You can’t arrive at a race soft, like a marshmallow. The intensity has to rise. For me that happens when I start warming up.
“Once the warm-up starts, you’re going into war, a fight in the ring. Then, when you’re standing on the line your ego has to come out. You want to be king. You need to feed your ego and your ego wants to be fed.”
No one demands more from Simbine than himself.
“My expectations are such that in the major events anything outside of the top five is a terrible result for me, but I have been in the top five everywhere for years. The difference between a 2016 Akani and a 2022 Akani is that, before, I used to come in and say ‘I want to win a medal’. Now, it’s ‘I want to win’.”
