Mark Etheridge feature Judoka Charné Griesel is digging for new gold in Eersterust

She won a bronze medal at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. But back home in SA, judoka Charné Griesel is digging for new gold.

The lightweight Pretoria powerhouse won her medal in the 52kg division and while her long-term judo focus is on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, she is winning hearts and minds in a local community while unearthing the next generation of stars.

Now 22, and studying BA Law at Tukkies, she took up sport as a means to an end.

“I was about six when I was diagnosed with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), but my parents didn’t want to put me onto medication and were advised to use sport as an alternative to help me focus,” she recalls.

“I got so many hidings when I was young because I could never sit still. My teachers even thought I was allergic to the carpets at school because I fidgeted so much. So they suggested I do sport, which I did [any sport I could find] before I chose to specialise in judo when I was about 16.”

Sport made a huge difference to her life. “I had no choice but to focus and by the time I was seven I was already an expert at time-management,” she says, laughing.

Today sees her having won multiple medals, both locally and internationally, and she also has a regular judo coaching role at Tukkies. But, true to her driven personality, it’s never enough.

Which brings us to her new project. “From an early age I’ve wanted to share things with and help people less privileged than me but didn’t really know how to do it.

“One of my judo students, Marike Smit, has a masters in occupational therapy and she did a project in Mamelodi, where they have a massive nyaope (a highly addictive and damaging recreational drug) problem and the idea was to try and get the kids off the street at an early age rather than having to try and rehabilitate them after the damage was done.”

The Mamelodi move floundered eventually through a lack of sustainability. But before then, fate flew onto the scene.

“I was sitting in [Tuks sports manager, specialised individual sports] Ilze Wicksell’s office earlier this year, discussing my plans when, out of the blue, three guys walked in from Eersterust, saying they were desperate to get judo up and running in their neighbourhood. It was a complete fluke.”

One thing led to another and with the help of Tshwane Judo Association they got a few tatami (judo mats) and were up soon and playing in the working-class suburb in the east of the city.

“I go through and coach for 90 minutes straight after classes every Friday and I have a few fellow judoka [among them Commonwealth gold medallist Michaela Whitebooi] who I alternate with. Right now we have about 30 regulars.”

And, says Griesel, the dynamics are diverse in an area where sheer survival is often a struggle. “A lot of them are also doing kick-boxing during the week. It’s crazy ... our youngest members are about five years old and then we have full-grown adults, so we’re not doing it only for kids, it’s a whole community thing and each and every one of them have different background stories.”

Griesel’s passion is clearly being passed on to her pupils. Less than six months after the project started, two of her pupils struck pay dirt. “We had SA school championships in Johannesburg earlier this month and Kemodeen Adams and Egan Kaliers both won gold in their division.”

Says champion Adams: “Monday to Thursday evenings I’m busy with kick-boxing and Friday used to be my day off but I decided to take up judo. It’s a better thing than staying at home because some kids just like to fight [in a bad way].”

For her part, Wicksell, a champion track athlete in her day and SA’s first woman to break the 2min barrier in the 800m, has nothing but praise for Griesel.

“She’s matured so wonderfully because judo is a really tough sport. She’s going to have a very successful road ahead of her, in all senses of the word. She’s an incredibly hard worker and started her judo coaching as a means to funding her overseas trips for both competition and coaching.

“This project is her ‘baby’ ... I’m so proud of her, no matter the obstacles, she makes sure things carry on smoothly. Whatever she tackles, she gives 100% and more.”

Having done judo for two-thirds of her life, Griesel says the sport is tailor-made for her.

“Team sports just never really worked for me because you’re always reliant on someone else. In judo, what you put into it you get out — and can hold yourself accountable. Your mental, physical, emotional senses are all entwined and you get a sense of who you are because of what you do.”

And what Griesel does is give and give again, whether it be physical or emotionally.

She uses the salary she makes from coaching at Tuks and ploughs a substantial portion back into her project. “I’m fortunate enough to live with my parents and don’t have expenses like accommodation and I’m eternally grateful for that privilege.

“So we try and supply our judoka with kits and take all the kits home and wash them ourselves. It just makes me happy to help. At the recent schools’ championships, I drove the guys and girls to Johannesburg for weigh-in the day before and made sure they got enough to eat.”

But the rewards she sees from her input simply can’t be measured in financial terms. “One of our top judokas has six siblings ... and even though he needed to fuel himself before the tournament, he still made sure that he kept some food to take home to his siblings.”

Sharing is caring and when it comes to Griesel’s sheer spirit of ubuntu, the only medal she deserves is gold.