Olympians with the right stuff

IT WAS sheer chance that South Africans Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani competed in the Olympic Marathon in the third Olympic Games held in 1904, making history as the first South Africans to compete in the Games.

The first Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896 with 311 athletes, all of whom were men, while the second Games were in Paris in 1900.

No South Africans took part in these two Games.

In 1904, the third Games were held in St Louis, in the US, and as the organisers had a poor response from athletes, with only 13 countries entering, the Olympic events were slotted into the programme of the “World Fair” which was being held at the same time.

Of the 625 athletes who entered, eight were women, with the first Olympic events starting on July 1 and taking place up until November 23, 1904.

Because of the lack of participation, World Fair organisers sent out an invitation to everyone at the Fair to participate in the Olympic Games.

As it so happened, taking place at the Fair was a revue enacting scenes from the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) called the Anglo-Boer War Historical Libretto, which highlighted the surrender of Boer general Piet Cronje at Paardeberg.

As one of the major attractions, Cronje played himself in the revue while two of his former soldiers, Len Taunyane (recorded as Tau in many historical records) and Jan (John) Mashiani were working with him at the revue.

The pair were also with Cronje at the Paardeberg surrender and at the end of the war, they were re-united with their general, accompanying him when he left South Africa and travelled to the US.

Taunyane and Mashiani decided to compete in the Olympic Marathon, with their names being recorded as Lentauw and Yamasani.

History records have speculated that the errors in their names came about because it was likely the two were unable

to write and gave their names verbally.

Tau finished 9th while Mashiani took 13th place.