Dr Bock-Jonathan Bronwyn
- Dr Bronwyn Bock-Jonathan
Dr Bronwyn Bock-Jonathan, a famous South African netball player, was until recently also a lecturer in the Department of Sport Science at the University of Stellenbosch. She is the first black person to represent the South African national team in netball. She is also known for her excellence and commitment to the sporting community not only as a player but also as a coach, official, academic, researcher and a mentor. She was named the South African flag-bearer for Team SA at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. She then became the captain of the South African National Netball Team for a number of years.
Bronwyn's success started when she was a member of the Stellenbosch University Netball Club from 1994 to 1995. She was selected as the best junior by the University's Netball Club in 1994. She was also part of the netball touring team from South Africa to Britain and Ireland in 1996. She received the top Senior Achievement Award from the SU (Stellenbosch University) club and she was awarded University Honours Colours.
From 2000 to 2002 Bronwyn captained the SA Protea team. She also served as the captain of the national team during a tour in Australia in May 2003, and captained the World Cup Team in Auckland, New Zealand, in November 2007. She has done a lot for Netball in South Africa and abroad. She has played 51 tests, two Commonwealth Games and one World Cup Game. She has attended a number of conferences and presented papers on various topics ranging from decision making in netball, mental toughness in netball, and the use of sports for social change in South Africa, both locally and abroad. She was selected as one of five winners of the Young Researchers Seminar in Austria. She was also selected as a Sportswoman of the Year by Western Cape sport writers.
Bronwyn contributes to the community by encouraging young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds to make sport part of their lives. She also acts as a motivational speaker and she has been a guest at various prize-giving ceremonies at schools. In June-2008, Bronwyn moved to Canberra in Australia to take up a 4-year contract to coach the new Canberra Darters and the ACT Netball Academy. She is supported by netball fans around the world and by her husband, Marvin Jonathan who is also a member of the South African baseball team.
Sources:
Coetzer Amanda
- Amanda Coetzer playing
Amanda Coetzer was born in 1971, in Hoopstad, South Africa. Amanda is a former South African professional tennis player. She became professional in 1988. She won her first top-level singles title in 1993 in Melbourne, and her second title later that year in Tokyo.
Coetzer started playing against a wall at the age of six. She was too young to play with her two older sisters. Her father then bought her a hitting machine and would set targets for her to practice. She practiced so hard that she eventually made some money out of it. That is how Amanda's career started.
Coetzer entered the top-20 on the women's world rankings in 1992 and remained there for 10 years. She developed a reputation for regularly beating players who were higher ranked than her. Amanda climbed to her career high ranking of World No. 3 in 1997. She also claimed two doubles titles, one in Toronto and the other in Puerto Rico. Tennis Magazine named her the year's Most Improved Female Player. She added another title in Tokyo. She won second-seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in the semi-finals. She also proved herself by beating hometown favourite Kimoko Date in the finals. She edged up to 15 in the world rankings. At Toronto in 1995 Coetzer made it through to the finals, where she was beaten by Monica Seles. Her path to the title decider included three huge wins, over top-seed Graf, fourth-seed Jana Novotna and fifth-seed Mary Pierce.
1997 was the best season of Coetzer's career. She reached Australian Open semi-finals by winning two times. She defeated World No. 1 Graf in the fourth round. She then beat Graf for a second time in the quarter-finals at Berlin. She defeated her by 6-0, 6-1 in just 56 minutes. Amanda defeated Graf again in the quarter-finals of the French Open. She become one of just six players to beat Graf three times in one year, and one of only four to defeat her more than once in Grand Slam play. Coetzer won the biggest title of her career in 1998 at Hilton Head. She won her eighth WTA title; by defeating the world number 10 Elena Dementieva in Acapulco.
In 1999 Coetzer became the only player ever to defeat Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport while they were ranked No. 1. In 2000. Amanda teamed-up with Wayne Ferreira to win the Hopman Cup for South Africa. She also played South Africa's Fed Cup team for six years and represented South Africa in the Olympic Games three times. In 2001 she qualified for her ninth consecutive year-end championship. During her career, Coetzer won nine top-level singles titles and nine doubles titles. Her final singles title was won in Acapulco in 2003.
Sources:
Du Toit Natalie
- Natalie Du Toit
Natalie Du Toit is a South African swimmer, born in Cape Town on 29 January 1984.
In February 2001, Natalie was involved in a car accident which resulted to her left leg being amputated at the knee. A car had driven into her while she was riding her scooter to school just after she had finished swimming practice.
However, she started swimming again in May of the same year, with the intention of competing in the 2002 Commonwealth Games. She won both the multi-disability 50m freestyle and the multi-disability 100m freestyle in world record time in Manchester. This qualifid her for the 800m able-bodied freestyle final.
In 2003, competing against able-bodied swimmers; Du Toit won Gold in the 800m freestyle at the All Africa Games. At the same time, she won Silver in the 800m freestyle and Bronze in the 40m freestyle at the Afro Asian Games.
Natalie is best known for winning gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic Games. She has been one of the most successful disabled athletes of all time, often competing alongside able-bodied athletes. She was also nominated for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year 2004 with Disability Award. Du Toit was voted 48th in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004 by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. This year she was commended for her courage and acknowledged for her achievements.
At the 2006 Commonwealth Games she repeated her previous performance by winning the same two golds as she had in Manchester. In the same year, Du Toit won six gold medals at the fourth IPC World Swimming Championships. She finished third in the overall race which included 36 males and 20 females.Her next target is qualifying for the Olympics in Beijing 2008 and she hopes that her specialty event, the 1500m freestyle, will be an Olympic event by then.
Natalie is also studying for a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Cape Town, specializing in genetics and physiology. In her free time, she also does motivational speaking.
Before the accident, a coach gave Du Toit an unattributed poem. She rediscovered it after her accident. Before, it didn't mean much. Now, a laminated copy hangs on her wall, so that she can recite it in her sleep:
The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals;
The tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for.
It is not a disgrace not to reach for the stars,
But it is a disgrace not to have stars to reach for.
Sources:
