PARIS – When the four South African kayakers started their competition at the Olympics in Paris on Tuesday, there was another prominent Gauteng administrator literally following in their paddle strokes at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium this week.
Andy Birkett, Hamish Lovemore, Esti Olivier and Tiffany Koch are all competing in two events each at Paris 2024 and all four started their doubles events on Tuesday afternoon. However, well-known South African administrator Alan Witherden is officiating at his fifth Olympic Games and this year he is on one of the official umpire’s boats following the paddlers and checking for rule infringements.
Birkett and Lovemore team up for the men’s 500m K2 (doubles) and those heats started on Tuesday afternoon, a few minutes before Koch and Olivier competed in the corresponding women’s event.
The two men will also both tackle the 1 000m K1 (singles) event starting on Wednesday morning, while Koch and Olivier will line up in the 500m K1, also starting on Wednesday.
On the officials’ boats following all the action is Witherden, checking to make sure all paddlers follow the rules. The former chairman of the Canoeing South Africa Sprint Committee first officiated at the Athens Olympics in 2004 – where he was “just kind of a nobody doing a menial job” – and followed that up in 2008 at Beijing, 2016 in Rio and Tokyo in 2021.
“I was manager and confidant for Bridgitte Hartley as she prepared for the Olympics in 2012, so there was a conflict of interest for me there, so I did not go to the London Olympics,” said Witherden from Paris this week.
The Paris 2024 event is vastly different to Witherden’s experience in Tokyo in 2021, when the 2020 Olympics where first delayed and then held under strict Covid conditions, which meant a very restricted life for officials who went straight from the competition venues to being confined in their hotel rooms for the duration of their stay in the Japanese capital.
“It’s hard to beat what Paris has to offer in total,” said Witherden. “I was going sightseeing at the Normandy Battlefields last week and I was talking to an American about the whole Olympic experience, and she described coming to the Paris Olympics as ‘like going to Disney World – everybody is happy!’
“That is a fact. I was at the kayak cross event earlier this week and it was amazing how the crowd was so festive, and that is just typical of what Paris offers. Everyone is getting to all the places and the metro works very well and is easily understood.
“It is just a thoroughly enjoyable experience.”
While Witherden has been able to enjoy the experience so far with some sightseeing and watching other sports events, he does have a serious job at the Nautical Stadium this week.
“I am one of six course umpires and I follow the races on a motor boat. There are two course umpires per race, and we have to judge that everybody is competing according to the rules. If we believe there has been an infraction we raise a red flag at the finish and write a report to to the competition committee and maybe give evidence to a jury and then possibly an appeal.”
While he has a key role, Witherden’s highlight of a long involvement with international canoeing started in 1991.
“I was at Paris in 1991 when Canoeing South Africa was readmitted to the international Canoe Federation and that was very significant for me, but my most memorable achievement was when I helped get eight paddlers to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.”
The canoeing events finish on Saturday afternoon.