Gymnastics | Gymnastics South Africa appoints Johann Meintjes as Para-gymnastics coordinator
Gymnastics South Africa today announced the appointment of Johann Meintjes as the new Para-Gymnastics Coordinator, effective January 2025. Johann will serve in this role for the next six months, focusing on coordinating Gymnastics SA's efforts to further develop its inclusion of athletes with a disability into the sport of gymnastics.
Johann Meintjes"Johann is the ideal person to coordinate our efforts to make gymnastics more inclusive of athletes with a disability," says Adele Heine, President of Gymnastics South Africa. "Johann's involvement in gymnastics goes back more than 50 years. He represented South Africa twice at the Trampoline and Tumbling World Championships and served on the Northern Transvaal Executive Committee. After suffering an injury in 1982, which left Johann paralyzed from the waist down, he focused his energy on coaching and was the national coach of the Tumbling team that participated in the 1990 World Champs in Germany. Since 2011 Johann also took up photography and became the first quadriplegic photographer at a Summer Olympic Games, when he attended the games in Paris in 2024."
"One of the key focus areas for Gymnastics South Africa in 2025 is to make gymnastics more accessible to everyone in South Africa, especially athletes with a disability. This is in line with the International Gymnastics Federation's (FIG) drive to include para-gymnastics (MAG and WAG) at the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane. I look forward to working with Johann to realise our vision of making gymnastics accessible to everyone," adds Heine.
Johann's priority will be to engage with the Provincial structures within the Federation and assess the needs and potential areas of growth for para-gymnastics, especially WAG, MAG and potentially Rhythmic. Attention will also be given to aligning Gymnastics SA's para-gymnastics plans and programmes with those being developed by FIG, including defining the various classifications.
Gymnastics SA members who'd like to contact Johann Meintjes can do so by emailing him at
