Most South African Officials Delighted : Impact: They see potential for unifying country, but president of one group calls it a travesty and warns that violence may result.

Generations of young athletes, a few among the most gifted in the world, have come and gone for more than 30 years in South Africa with a dream, but little hope, of competing in the Olympic Games.

Tuesday, black and white athletes, coaches and fans across South Africa celebrated the beginning of the end of their days as the sporting world’s pariah. South Africa was back in the Olympics, and the dreams of many men and women seemed about to come true.

“Our guys have paid the price for a very long time,” said Gert le Roux, executive director of the multiracial South African Amateur Athletic Union. “They’ve worked hard all these years, and now finally they can get on with the game. It’s long overdue.”

South Africa, a country of 37 million people, is one of the most sports-minded nations in the world, with regular tournaments in everything from golf to marathon running and soccer to boxing. And the sports boycott, likely to crumble quickly with the International Olympic Committee’s decision, was among the most painful sanctions ever imposed here.

“We were very, very hard hit by the boycott,” Le Roux acknowledged. “But there’s no looking back now. This is a great moment, honestly. I’m just glad I’ve lived to see us return.”

The decision to readmit South Africa to international competition is likely to strengthen President Frederik W. de Klerk’s political position in the country, where many whites have expressed deep concern about the government’s reform program and the internal strife it has triggered.

But some anti-apartheid organizations here and abroad have objected to the IOC’s move to readmit South Africa, arguing that the sports boycott should remain until the country grants its 28 million blacks, who outnumber whites, 5-1, the right to vote.

Joe Ebrahim, president of the radical South African Council on Sport, which represents mainly Indian and mixed-race athletes, said Tuesday that the IOC’s decision was “a travesty of justice.” And he warned that it could spark violence inside the country.

But many sports officials believe that the move will speed up the process of integration in athletics and other areas, giving blacks a sense of belonging to the country that has been absent up to now.

“South Africa needs heroes. And international sport is probably the most unifying opportunity we have,” said Deryck Spence, chief executive officer of Castrol, one of South Africa’s largest oil companies. Spence urged businesses to come up with the money necessary to “help our athletes prepare for Barcelona,” where the Olympic Games will be held next summer.

The move also is likely to give a boost to the top track and field athletes, who will be able to compete on the lucrative international sports circuit. Most athletes in South Africa train while holding full-time jobs.

“Athletes will now truly be able to make a living from their sport,” said Mike Green, who manages several of South Africa’s best track and field athletes. “As far as we’re concerned, each and every athlete in our stable is ready for Barcelona, and we’ve been planning accordingly for some time now.”

The country’s Amateur Athletic Union was one of the first sporting bodies in South Africa to become multiracial in 1977, and track and field athletes have the best chance among South Africans for medals in the Barcelona Games.

The black standouts, who would be among the first to represent South Africa in modern times, include Tshakile Nzimande, whose 200-meter time was the 10th-best in the world last year.

“I feel very proud,” Nzimande, 29, said in a telephone interview Tuesday from his home in Welkom. Nzimande was born in a rural black township two years after his country’s last Olympic appearance, at Rome in 1960. The 1992 Games will mark his first--and probably last--chance at an Olympic medal.

“I want to thank Mr. De Klerk and Mr. (Nelson) Mandela (the African National Congress president) for all they have done,” Nzimande added. “I only hope we are ready.”

South Africa’s Olympic Committee will consider membership applications from 25 multiracial sports federations in South Africa. Until recently, most sports in South Africa were administered by separate bodies--for whites, blacks, Indians and mixed-race Coloreds.

The unification drive in some sports has been hampered by bitter internal disagreements, and the local Olympic Committee director, Sam Ramsamy, has warned that he will closely study applications.

Not all sports bodies here have embraced South Africa’s return to the Olympics. Ebrahim, of SACOS, hinted that his group might challenge the decision in a Swiss or South African court.

Ebrahim also warned that SACOS might disrupt tours to South Africa by foreign athletes.

“We’re completely opposed to any team coming here,” he said. “Our members are going to express themselves very, very visibly.”

But another sports official, track and field Vice President Danie Malan, saw the announcement as a chance to unite all athletes in South Africa.

“There’s no better uniting factor than seeing South Africans marching inside the stadium in Barcelona,” he said. “We won’t just look like a far-off country. That’s maybe the main thing.”