Khayelitsha is one of the biggest townships in Cape Town. It sprawls across many square kilometres to the east of the city. Crime, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS and substance abuse are sadly too common. Many of the kids in the township are victims. Today lots of them are at the Future Champs project to meet Kelly Holmes.
Kelly Holmes and Morne du Plessis in Cape Town
Kelly is an amazing woman who after a career of injury and disappointments won TWO Olympic gold medals at 800 metres and 1,500 metres in Athens, at the age of 34.
Kelly arrives with Springbok rugby legend Morné du Plessis at a large sports field with rugby pitches where the children give Kelly and Morné a wonderful welcome with lovely singing.
Morné has introduced Kelly to the kids and she is now making a speech about how hard she trained over 20 years to achieve her dream of winning Olympic medals. She is showing them pictures of her winning her Olympic medals and is asking the kids why they feel sport is so important.
One young boy says sport is important “because it keeps you off the street”. Another boy said “sport keeps you healthy” and another “sport protects us from dangerous things”. “Sport gives me self confidence” says one girl.
Kelly has even shown them her two gold medals. They were very excited to see the medal. So was Morné. He may have been the manager of the Springbok team which won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, but he says he has never seen an Olympic medal before!
Kelly is really getting involved. She has just played on one of the Future Champs netball teams against their rivals. Playing at centre she set up three goals for a fine victory.
After some interviews with local journalists and Laureus TV, now Kelly is off to the rugby field with 30 young boys aged from eight to ten. She joins in all the scrums and rucks, making a couple of decent breaks as the young kids tried to tackle her, grabbing her shirt!
She’s a big hero to all the kids who are cheering her and thanking her for coming. It’s been a brilliant day in Khayelitsha, a day the children will never forget.
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