Like the gods of Mount Olympus, the rowing teams from St Andrew’s College have pulled off a significant number of titanic feats. Old Boy Andrew Thompson recently added an Olympic gold medal to the list of the school’s achievements.
Like the gods of Mount Olympus, the rowing teams from St Andrew’s College have pulled off a significant number of titanic feats. Old Boy Andrew Thompson recently added an Olympic gold medal to the list of the school’s achievements.
It was then fitting that he and Olympian team-mate Sizwe Ndlovu were given the honour of christening the new St Andrew’s eight-seater boat, the Olympus.
The pair, part of the men’s lightweight four that won gold at the London Olympic Games in August, were in Grahamstown with the Eastern Cape Rowing Association for a development tour. They attended a special assembly at the St Andrew’s Centenary Hall recently where Thompson addressed the school.
He explained that his journey to the Olympics began during this time at St Andrew’s. “I was inspired by my coach, John Derring, to perform at my best at every competition,” Thompson said.
He won two of the three school boat races that he had taken part in and was one half of the two-man team from St Andrew’s that won the SA school champs in 2003 and 2004. Thompson and his team-mate also competed at the Junior World Champs in 2003 and 2004 where they were placed third and fourth respectively.
He extolled the virtues of hard work and encouraged the St Andrew’s boys to give their best every day. “The future for you is now. Perform now, don’t wait until next year,” he said.
He also spoke passionately about the silver medal he won in the U23 World Champs Lightweight Men’s Pair in 2007 and 2008. “It was one of those times where we didn’t really know the significance of what we were doing at the time,” he explained, “But I know now that we were paving the way to the Olympics.”
The Olympic team that Thompson and Ndlovu were part of began training together in 2009 and from that point on their singular focus was winning gold. “Every decision we took related to that one goal,” he said. “We trained seven days a week, 48 weeks of the year.”
Thompson revealed that rowing had taught him valuable life skills like how to work in a team, discipline and the determination to succeed. He urged the young people in front of him to always strive to be the best at whatever they chose to do. The assembly ended in rapturous applause.
