Olympic opportunity beckons for Candice
One of her fondest recent achievements was becoming the African Jersey winner at the Cape Epic and winner of the Queen Stage in 2019.
With the Olympics in Tokyo is around the corner, having been postponed from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
One of the athletes who will be flying the South African flag is former South Coaster Candice Lill (nee Neethling).
Now aged 29, she will be competing in the women’s MTB cross-country race, just reward for her consistent hard work and dedication over many years.
Candice, the daughter of Gary and Carmen Neethling, lives in Cape Town now, but still has a lot of family and friends living and farming in Oribi and on the South Coast in general.
She attended Izotsha Primary before going on to Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High.
It’s her second chance at Olympic glory and she is looking forward to making her return to the world’s biggest athletics stage, where she will be going for gold on July 27.
Candice’s race will take place at 15:00.
After competing in her first games at the London 2012 Olympics at only 20 years old, she will now be reliving her childhood dream of becoming an Olympian.
“The Olympics is something I have dreamed about since I was very young,” she said.
“I recorded a whole lot of sports from the 2004 Olympics in Athens and I would watch it over and over again, back in the days before we had YouTube. I used to watch these tapes and dream about it,” she said.
As a junior, in 2009, Candice finished third at the World Junior XCO Champs.
In 2014, she was the African U23 National XCO Champion.
She also competed in the Elite Cross-country World Championships in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
One of her fondest recent achievements was becoming the African Jersey winner at the Cape Epic and winner of the Queen Stage in 2019.
It was enough to reignite her Olympic ambitions.
Like many athletes, the pandemic drastically affected things but for Candice it provided the opportunity for a different perspective not just on her career but life as well.
“In 2020 we had zero races, so I didn’t have much motivation to train. We rely on sponsorships for income and prize money and when you’re in a position where you can’t race, you can’t bring media exposure to your sponsors. It’s very tricky and you start questioning how you are going to be able represent your sponsors outside of racing,” Candice said.
“That brought out a whole different side of the sport for me and I embraced it, doing things that aren’t about race results in order to get exposure. Other than that it’s very difficult as a professional athlete to actually make money unless you really are winning everything on a world stage,” she added.
She will driven by her passion for the sport.
“For me the Olympics is about being the best that you can be, whether you win, finish in the top 10, or finish last. Each person has a story of how they reached this stage, and I think that I’ve come to realise that as long as you really give it everything, you can face your fears on the day,” she said.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
