When the Competition Begins, South Africans Are Merely Athletes

Alan Daly looked more like a basketball player than a gymnast when he marched into the Hoosier Dome Saturday and took his place in line next to the horizontal bar, waiting to compete in his first event at the World Gymnastics Championships.

Five or 10 more minutes was nothing after the decades-long struggle of South African athletes to return to international competition after being banned because of the country’s policy of apartheid, or racial separation.

So when Daly, who is 6 feet 3 and the tallest gymnast in the meet, mounted the bar and began his routine, it was a milestone.

“I had goose pimples when I marched in the arena--all the way up to my neck. I was ecstatic to think that we were finally competing,” Daly said after becoming the first South African in this meet in 25 years.

But once on the mat, Daly, 21, finally became merely an athlete.

“I didn’t think about the significance of the event once it was time to perform. I was just trying to concentrate,” Daly said. “It was my first time up and my first big competition.”

Finally, he mounted the bar and performed a smooth routine with only minor flaws. He scored a respectable 9.025.

The significance appeared lost on a scattered crowd of about 2,000. Only a group of gymnasts watching from the stands and a small South African delegation--that nearly didn’t find a flag in time to wave--cheered wildly before and after Daly’s competition.

“From birth I didn’t know anything other than competing against other South Africans, so I really didn’t know anything about international competition. I didn’t know any better,” Daly said. “We would do gymnastics because we liked the sport. That was are only motivation.”

Daly finished the compulsory competition with a score of 51.775, placing 74th out of 101. His best score was a 9.30 on the vault.