South African long jumper Jovan van Vuuren revealed on Sunday he was the victim of a personal attack which included death threats via WhatsApp messages the day before he was due to compete at his first Olympic Games.
The 28-year-old said he didn’t want to make excuses for not making it through the long jump qualification on Sunday, but that he’d been mentally shaken by the messages, which included personal details about his family and his best friend who had died by suicide in 2018.
“A lot of personal attacks and death threats, especially with stuff with my past in terms of my friend committing suicide and doping allegations,” explained the emotional Van Vuuren, who said the attacker had clearly done their homework.
“I don’t know where the person got my number.
“I mean, I'm an athlete, that's one thing we work hard for, you work hard to be here. It's a personal attack and stuff, it shook me a bit, I struggled to sleep last night,” he added.
SUPPORTIVE TEAM SA
Van Vuuren explained that he had taken screenshots of the messages and saved the number of the attacker who also tried to phone him around 5pm on Saturday.
“I gave all the evidence to the team, to Sascoc and to [athletics team manager] Jean Verster and hopefully the higher management from the SA Embassy here in France will take care of it. I'm not used to stuff like that, it shook me a bit.”
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Van Vuuren praised the Team SA staff for responding immediately after he informed them of the incident.
“Luckily the psychologist at Sascoc, she jumped in. I immediately went to her just to recover mentally from this. But last night it crept up and started getting difficult to process.
“It did a lot of personal damage to me mentally-wise. I'm going to take legal action for it, but again, it's not an excuse for my poor performance. It's just for me it hurts, especially with the stuff being said, especially with my best friend,” added Van Vuuren, who said being on social media and in the public eye was a necessary part of being an athlete.
“All I can say is social media is a cruel thing. Unfortunately with sports you have to do it for your endorsements and stuff and to get your name out there, but it's a cruel place.”
'DESPICABLE THREATS'
SASCOC released a statement in response to Van Vuuren's revelations, saying: "Our Team SA long jumper Jovan van Vuuren competed in the men’s qualification round at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday against the backdrop of despicable threats dished out to himself and members of his family that were sent via WhatsApp.
"The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) is aware of the threats and has offered unconditional support to the athlete. He is also receiving professional counselling from Team SA’s psychologists. In addition, the matter has been handed to the relevant authorities, including the police, for investigation."
Van Vuuren has made a remarkable return to action after a career-threatening injury last year and a jump of 8.30m earlier this year to put him in medal contention, although another injury meant he hadn’t competed much coming into these Games.
Still clearly shaken, the Commonwealth Game bronze medallist, tried to look at the positives of his first Olympic experience, after his best jump in qualification of 7.70m saw him finishing 23rd overall, well off the top-12 spot he needed to get to the final.
“The crowd was electric, you can feel it running through your veins and stuff. I think this is an experience every athlete should experience once in their lives, I will cherish it forever,” he said.
“After I finished my jumps I took a look back and just soaked it in, I mean it's a dream come true. Hopefully the next one I’m better prepared, next year is world champs. I’ll take two weeks off, enjoy the last vibes of the village. I mean it's the Olympics, it's lekker, it’s really lekker.”