Hestrie: Smoke while you jump
2004-08-25 16:18
Athens - South African high jumper Hestrie Cloete, the current female World Athlete of The Year, readily admits she isn't as good an advert for the sport as she should be.
"I'd smoke out there while I was competing, if they'd let me," admitted the 20-a-day nicotine addict sheepishly.
However, starting with the high jump qualifying rounds on Thursday, when she will be celebrating her 26th birthday, Cloete is looking to send the rest of her Olympic Games gold medal rivals up in smoke.
"My coach doesn't like it but, hey, that's me!" grinned the independently-minded women who took the silver medal four years ago in Sydney.
Her dubious habit hasn't stopped her from currently being the most dominant women's high jumper in the world, an accolade that may continue for a few years more.
"I suppose I'll stop smoking when I'm pregnant, but that could be a long time," added Cloete, who has now put on hold her original plans to start a family this year.
Last season, she won the world title with a height that hasn't been bettered for 12 years, which caused her to rethink her ideas to take a back seat from the sport and spend more time at home.
This year she is one of four athletes in contention for the Golden League jackpot of $1m.
But there is no contest between the prospect of a huge windfall and becoming South Africa's first woman athlete to win a gold medal since 1952.
"If I had to choose between an Olympic gold and the Golden League jackpot, I'd go for the medal every single time. An Olympic gold medal is worth far more than a million dollars."
Bizarrely, Cloete's smoking habit probably contributed to the discovery of her potential as a high jumper.
Against all conventional wisdom, the path to the tobacconists probably hastened her on the road to gold medal glory.
Cloete admits that, like many girls, she started smoking when she was a teenager but she was also a promising schoolgirl 400 and 800 metres runner in her schooldays in the small North West Province town of Coligny.
However, she found the training too hard, and was frequently out of puff.
"I chose the high jump as there is not as much training to do as for 400m or 800m," said Cloete, who started specialising in 1994 at the age of 16.
A year later she won the African Games gold medal and it has been a constant stream of success ever since, with Cloete barely having time to have a break and light up.
If Cloete wins, she will not be the first high jumper to stand on top of the medal podium looking up at the Olympic rings and thinking about blowing smoke rings.
Germany's Dieter Mogenburg, the 1984 men's high jump champion, was a notorious smoker during his competitive days, regularly slipping off for a cigarette between rounds during competitions.
Cuba's 1992 champion Javier Sotomayor was also known to have the more-than-occasional cigar.