Recently I had the honour of meeting South African Olympic gold medalist, Cameron Van Der Burgh. He flew to Port Elizabeth to give a talk at a corporate breakfast at The Granary in Stanley Street. What struck me most about him as he spoke us through his vigorous training routine leading up to the Olympics was his humility. He seemed very down to earth as he explained his typical schedule for a day in preparation for his life-altering race. Let me put it to you simply – a lot of training in the pool and in the gym, as well as meetings with his physios and a lot of studying towards his degree through UNISA each day. He trains with Dirk Lange and is based in Pretoria. Talking about his history, he elaborated on some of his highlights; he’s won numerous World Championship medals since his debut in 2007 when he took a bronze medal. His first world long-course record (27.06s) was obtained in the 50 m breaststroke in the semifinals at South African nationals in April 2009. He won the 50m breaststroke at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in a time of 27.18 seconds – a new games record – and the 100m world title at the 2010 short course world championships. He’s represented South Africa at the 2008 Summer Olympics and, most recently, at the 2012 Summer Olympics where he won the gold medal at the 100 meter breaststroke in a new world record of 58.46 seconds! He’s won the FINA overall World Cup twice. He certainly seemed very chuffed with his successes but still had a nice sense of humour and was able to laugh at himself easily, which was great to see. On Twitter he describes himself as “Olympic Champion and self proclaimed Fifa king ;)” – Follow him at https://twitter.com/Cameronvdburgh I didn’t know he was born in 1988, making him the same age as me! Check out his website at: http://www.cameronvanderburgh.com It was a fantastic morning with a continental breakfast buffet available to all the guests afterwards. I was also very happy to see I got some coverage with him in the October issue of the ‘Sport Elizabeth’ sports publication!

Another thrilling experience I had recently was the release of a music video I am in. It’s the video for the song “Hold On” by popular South African band Mac Stanley, previously known as Flat Stanley. It was a huge honour for me to do this video – I play ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and I come in toward the end of the video when my prince charming finds me after searching through a forest and we share a very long on-screen kiss! 😛 I absolutely love the song and its message is very beautiful! The video has already had close to 1000 views on YouTube after being out for just 2 weeks! Watch this space – This band is going places. Check out their website: http://www.macstanley.com/