Once written off, SA athletics star Luvo Manyonga has reclaimed his place among Africa’s best, writes Daniel Mothowagae.
“Even dogs did not bark at me anymore,” South African athlete Luvo Manyonga reflected on his wretched condition at a time when he was at his lowest point due to drug addiction.
It was around 2020, a period when the world was grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a tough time for Manyonga. He was suspended on his birthday, January 8, for failing to submit his whereabouts to anti-doping authorities, a serious violation of the rules.
Then his mother passed away that same year. Naturally, anyone would have struggled to deal with such setbacks, and Manyonga vanished from the spotlight. He was hooked on crystal meth, a recreational drug that led to his ban in 2012 after a failed dope test.
The 2020 ban was overwhelming, made worse by Manyonga’s claim that he squandered R80 million. That’s what he alleged on the popular Mzansi Magic TV show I Blew It. While in the wilderness, Manyonga — a 2016 Olympic silver medallist and 2017 world champion in the long jump — resorted to house burglaries and theft to feed his cravings.
The great comeback
Fast forward to the present, Manyonga is steadily pulling off one of the greatest comebacks witnessed in sport. The athlete from Mbekweni near Paarl in the Western Cape has just been crowned African long jump champion at the continental track and field meet held in Accra, Ghana, between 12 and 17 May.
The feat came just over a year and a half after he completed a four-year ban. Since his return to official competition, Manyonga appears to be a man on a mission to turn his life around.
“The drive is the man above [God]. I’m still alive. I still have a chance to prove myself and to give back to the world,” he said, on the sidelines of last year’s Athletics SA Grand Prix series launch in Pretoria.
His return to competition was delayed by a hamstring strain. To his credit, Manyonga has lived up to his promise to make the most of his second chance. In the months since his return to action, he ended a long absence from the European circuit with a bang, posting two eight-metre jumps (8.08m in the qualifiers and 8.11m for a sixth-place finish in the final) at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, US, in February.
The performances ultimately qualified him for the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland, in March. Although he failed to register a legal mark there, Manyonga redeemed himself with a gold medal at the SA Senior Track and Field Championships in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, in mid-April — his first national title in seven years.
More podium finishes followed: a bronze medal at the inaugural Simbine Classic, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting held in Pretoria on 28 April, and a gold medal at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix.
The African Senior Athletics Championships gold medal from Accra, thanks to an 8.15m leap, was an upgrade for Manyonga, who previously claimed runner-up spots at the 2016 and 2018 editions.
A time to rebuild
Manyonga admits that at his advanced age, he won’t replicate the lofty standards he set as a world champion in 2017 or as an Olympic runner-up in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He has indeed undertaken to stay on the straight and narrow, recalling bold declarations that now serve as the driving force behind his return to big-time athletics.
“I just came back to being the father who didn’t lose hope or the father who didn’t give up in life, even though athletics won’t bring me back to where I left off [in 2019]. As long as I am part of athletics, that’s the comeback goal,” Manyonga said about his new chapter.
“I just want to focus on the person that I’m building now — Luvo the father, Luvo the brother… Luvo the athlete is just a bonus for me because I need to focus on me first. Before, I forgot that I was a human being first and not just the person in the limelight.”
Although he has never shied away from sharing his battle with addiction and the many relapses that dogged him over the past few years, Manyonga doesn’t want to dwell on the past.
Away from big-city distractions, Manyonga’s steady progress to redemption is aided by an ideal environment. He is based in Vanderbijlpark in the Vaal, working with the Worldwide Scholarships academy under coach Herman Venske.
Reflecting on his career, Manyonga also pointed out that the admiration for his impact as an athlete has been an added drive for his comeback. Next up, he is eyeing participation at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, from 23 July to 2 August.
While serving his ban from sport, Manyonga may have lost his dignity and income, but there is one thing he never lost: the national and African record he set at his peak. His 8.65m from Potchefstroom in 2017 still stands as the South African and African record, just 30cm shy of American great Mike Powell’s 8.95m world mark set in 1991.
The 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles may be a step too far for Manyonga, considering his age, but he can draw inspiration from another American long jump icon, Carl Lewis.
Lewis, who is coaching South African sprinter Shaun Maswanganyi in the US, won his last medal in a major competition at age 35 — a gold at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Next year’s World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China, could provide Manyonga with his last shot on the global stage. – sports@mukurukuru.co.za
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