Olympic silver medallist makes history and calls it a day

Morgan Bolton

JUST after making history at the Olympics games in Tokyo last month by becoming the first silver medallist in surfing, Bianca Buitendag; with joy sparkling in her eye and a smile of gratefulness cut across her face; announced to everyone’s surprise that with her dream achieved, she would plant her board in the sand and call it a day in her professional career.

“It’s a historical moment,” she admitted afterwards to a local news site. “I’ll only realise the magnitude in a few days, but it’s awesome. “It’s also the last contest of my life, so I went out with a bang. I’ve made the most of a lot of the opportunities given and never really let one slip past. It’s time to carry on with the next season of my life.”

Indeed, it was the perfect way to end the Games for the 27-year-old, one that will leave a legacy for years to come and which defied all the odds to achieve it. Ranked 26th in the world before the Olympic event, Buitendag fought her way through the field of 20, beating favourites and greats along the way to her second-place finish.

To those that watched the event, it came as something of a revelation, but even before the Games, Buitendag made no bones about her chances, and considered herself an underdog - the ultimate motivation. She was also alive to the magnitude of the occasion and the responsibility upon her shoulders.

“It’s the first time that surfing has been included at the Olympics,” Buitenbag said with a proud smile and giggle in an interview with Independent Media then, “so this was never really on the radar growing up. We would watch other disciplines but never think we would be included … I’m looking forward to it and it still feels a bit surreal.

It feels weird (being an Olympian). Unless I started another sport, for us it was just a non-existent possibility. So, when they announced it three or four years ago, I was like, ‘uh-oh, I can’t let this opportunity pass’. We never thought this dream would come true.

For Buitendag, surfing transcends the metaphysical boundaries of what a sport is and can be. It is beyond tangible reality and operates as much in the physical world, as it does deep within the sub-consciousness.

It is not merely a matter of flesh, blood and muscle subduing the might of nature, or conquering the power of the ocean but rather a cathartic, near-night religious experience every time she crosses the threshold between terra firma and the sea. Explained Buitendag: “To me, it is more of a therapy than a sport.

“There is an actual geographical divide once you step over the shoreline - it feels like you are leaving everything behind. There is a sense of freedom in that. That is my biggest thrill, to just put your head under the water and kind of wash away what happened that day, that year.

I can’t imagine not being in the ocean, even on a weekly basis I start shaking if I haven’t been in the sea. “Catching waves is a bonus but it is the initial crossing into the ocean that refreshes you; it gives you a clean slate. It’s a baptism every time.

Through her triumph, the Victoria Bay-native will no doubt introduce surfing to a new batch of would-be Olympians that will have the joy of experiencing that regeneration of spirit. And although her medal will be the tactile connection to her achievement, it is that spark of inspiration that will be her legacy.