MARK ETHERIDGE: Para athlete Simoné Kruger reaps rewards of a lifetime struggle

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again is a phrase that hails from the 1800s, but for Simoné Kruger it could serve as a life motto.

The Pretoria teen threw her way to discus gold and a new global F38 class record of 38.10m at the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris — a just reward for a lifelong struggle.

In fact, Kruger’s struggle began even before birth. She suffered a stroke while still in mom Susan’s womb, which left her with a condition known as hemiplegia (a Paralympic cerebral palsy classification).

“So the front-left side of her brain was permanently damaged and all the muscles on the right-hand side of her body were damaged,” explains father Andries, who has been her mainstay and main coach for her entire athletics career.

“We had to get experts in to help the muscles reconnect and form new routes to another part of her brain. We dealt a lot with Carina Eksteen at Tukkies and Deon Buhrs at Proffessa Health Services and they were amazingly helpful.

“Deon arranged for a special apparatus from England that shocked the leg into lifting the foot as a normal abled person would — she literally had to learn to put one foot in front of the other and she had to use two of those little machines for about six years.”

But there was never a word of complaint from young Simoné. “She was never bothered, no sacrifice was too much for her, she was a very different child and tackled every physio session with love, etc ... her rehab began at a very early age.”

From Simoné’s side she’s eternally grateful for her dad’s love and loyalty. “I have an extraordinary relationship with my dad. He’s everything in one to me — a father/coach and even photographer. He knows me better than anyone and it’s through him that everything I’ve done became possible.”

Kruger senior was in turn further empowered in his coaching with regular input from coaches Pierre Blignaut and Eben Vermaas, who specialise in field events.

Since taking up the shot-put to emulate her older sister, Simoné has shone and even held her own against able-bodied competitors through her primary and high-school competition career.

At 12 she started focusing on para-sport and while still at primary school went to her first international meeting, the IWAS Games in Portugal where she took part in five events, winning medals in some. The same year she also went to an International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) event in Ireland where her shot-put result was the best of the competition across all age groups.

Moving on, and the year of 2019 was a good year for her. She was on track for big things at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. 

Then Covid-19 pushed the Games back a year, though she was still regarded as a definite medal contender.

But things don’t always work out as planned and Japan proved a jolt in her progress.

“Her throws in the month before the Games showed that she could win, but during her event, the last day of the athletics competition, the heavens opened and Simoné was unable to use her fast-throwing technique, there was nothing to dry the discus or her hands with,” says Kruger senior.

“She got her last three throws in but had to settle for fifth place.”

So we come back to the motto: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Father and daughter did just that, building on the learning curve from Japan and when they flew into France earlier in July, she was throwing medal-winning distances in training.

She recalls her world record-setting day. “I just knew it was a good day from the moment I woke up and even though there wasn’t a warm-up circle, I just chilled because I knew I had big throws in me.”

Her first throw felt pretty good but was red-flagged. She took it in her stride but after four other athletes had had their turn in the circle, technical officials told her that she could retake that throw as she hadn’t in fact stepped out of the circle.

“So I took that throw again and it put me first in the rankings which made me very excited — it straight away transferred the pressure from me onto my rivals.

“My third row was a world record 37.87m but the last round of throws was so very stressful. When it came to my last throw I knew I just had to stay chilled and keep my head — and it was the perfect throw, I couldn’t have wished for a better day.”

In the end, her 38.10m world record bettered silver medallist Canadian Renee Foessel by 1.09m and arch-rival Na Mi of China by more than 2m.

What’s next for SA’s golden girl, who apart from athletics, says she’d love to read all day if she could?

“That gold medal and world record means a lot for my future. Sure, there’ll be more pressure on me but that just makes me work harder because there’s always stuff to improve one.”

The sad truth of disabled sport in SA is that the media spotlight often shines on the stars during and shortly after the big events and then it’s into the shadows again.

But for now Kruger’s on a high. “When I got back to the airport, my Hoërskool Garsfontein schoolmates were there to welcome me back and on my first day back at school they formed a guard of honour for me to walk through — that was pretty special.”

She’s in her final year of school now and she’s keen to study either physiotherapy (to put back into sport and disability sport) or genetics — but for now that’s on the back-burner.

“I’m going to take a gap-year next year because it’s both world championships [in Japan, where she has unfinished business] and the Paris Paralympics.”

Looking forward to France, Kruger has tried, she’s won a gold medal and set a world record.

When she next performs in Paris she’ll be heading back to her happiest hunting ground to date.