(AFRICA CYCLING REVOLUTION)
(OLYMPIC GAMES BEIJING 2008)
We in Africa are just as good as anyone else around the world.
I want you to push and put real pressure on it
then you will come out flying so you can jump when you get there.
We want to transform the sport,
so we've got programmes running at the moment
to introduce as many kids to the possibility
and we're designing our structures
to make sure that there's equal opportunity.
You don't lean forward.
If you lean forward, you're going to roll and fall. OK?
(SOUTH AFRICA BMX REPUBLIC)
I don't want anyone to rush.
I want everyone to play nice.
The challenges of becoming the best rider in this country is
to work hard, is to listen to your coach and is do all the best you can
and is to focus and stay consistent and train hard.
Sure, and do your best and motivate yourself
and keep your mind going and tell yourself that you can do it.
Listen to the coaches!
It's really about starting with young kids,
it's about creating the wider base that we possibly can,
so that in 10 or 15 or 20 years' time
it is going to be able to be a case where we're going to be able
to have five or six or eight
top South African riders
that can then go to an Olympic Games
or to a world championships and compete.
(SISIFO NHLAPO TWO-TIME OLYMPIAN - CYCLING BMX)
We have to think of new ways of doing things, because
we don't just have the big budgets that we can throw at a problem.
It came out of a structured environment
that wasn't equal to all, so although we might be advanced
on certain sides of the sport
we're actually very disadvantaged on the other side of the sport.
So that's one of the reasons we're here,
is to start redressing and opening the sport to a lot more people
and creating equal opportunity.
Part of this programme is, apart from actually teaching
you guys some new skills, when you go back home
you are also able to continue
doing some good work with the cycling, as well.
(KHAYELITSHA CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA)
Ntyebo, bring a side cutter.
When you put your feet in Khayelitsha you must know what you want...
..because there are a lot of influences out there,
people that will influence you into bad things.
So you must really know what you want in your life.
My name is Anita. I live in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
I'm doing BMXing.
Khayelitsha is the second-biggest township in South Africa.
It has over 1.2 million people.
It probably has in excess of about 600,000 kids
under the ages of 25 years old, so it's mostly youth.
Living in the township, chances are your bike can be stolen,
because Khayelitsha is not a safe place for bicycles.
My bike is like my friend or my girlfriend.
I call my bike "Umtshini" (Machine).
I started riding a BMX in 2009 on the 23rd of January,
when I was nine years old.
My name is Wanga and my surname is Moshani.
I'm 18 years old.
In 2013, I won the South African Championships.
My talent is music.
I sing, I create my own songs
along with my group of friends.
It is my 'hood, I belong here and I'm well known.
I work as a coach at Velokhaya.
I coach children on how to ride a bicycle and in fitness.
"Velo" meaning "bicycle" in French,
"Khaya" is "home" in Xhosa,
so this is the "bicycle home".
It started, well, 12 years ago.
It was obviously to use the bicycle as a tool to promote education.
We saw talent actually in the kids within the community,
so we honed that talent.
But what we try and do is to make sure that we change the mind-sets
of the kids in the community.
So it doesn't mean if you don't make it on the bike,
then that is your future.
So it's all about creating champions on and off the bicycle.
Me as a coach,
I focus on taking the children
in the township and introduce them to cycling
so that they may stay away from drugs and crime.
My life has been different to when I started doing BMXing
and coming to Velokhaya.
I was no longer that Anita that I used to be.
Anita and I met in 2009.
And when she arrived, she had never ridden a bike before.
I taught her how to ride, holding her bike seat and so on.
(KHAYELITSHA GIRL TAKES ON THE WORLD AT BMX CHAMPS)
Within two or three years,
she was in the World Championships and went to Denmark in 2011
to defend her world rank, which was number six.
My goals are to be a well-trained psychologist
and to go and participate in the Olympics, to get first in the world.
It's good to have Anita. She can encourage me in the team
whether things are good or bad, she always pushes me
to be sure and confident on my BMX.
When we're training, I'm behind him, so I'm, like, chasing him.
If he's growing, I'm growing also.
My best rider, the rider that makes me proud,
is Wanga.
He never ceases to amaze me. We work very well together.
When I finish training, I go home.
I clean my bicycle and prepare everything for tomorrow.
I am a grade 12 student. I focus on my books every day.
You guys have a new member, and we live by our principles,
the dedication, the discipline, and we've just had Mihlali now,
who's been doing the running programme for the past three months.
He's now obviously graduated and he'll also get a bike
and be part of the BMX programme. These will be his new team-mates.
I remember the moment, the first time I ever had a bike at Velokhaya
which is for me. I was very happy.
They don't give you the bike as soon as you want to join the club.
If you are disciplined, then they will be able to give you the bike,
and if you're not, then they will not give you the bike.
Velokhaya changed my life a lot. When I joined there, most of
my friends, we joined together, but most of them, they quit it.
They are on drugs, others are criminals.
If I cannot make it into the sport of cycling,
I want to mentor others at Velokhaya
so that I could be able to teach them how to become a better rider.
(CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA)
I do not come from a rich family.
I've been on an airplane because of Velokhaya
and have slept in hotels that I never imagined I would,
so I'm very grateful to Velokhaya.
If I could see him participating at the Olympics,
then I could really say that my dreams have come true.
In the next five years, I want to see myself
racing with guys like Nick Mann,
BMX pros.
I want to see myself racing with them and getting to the Olympics
representing South Africa.