Rugby in South Africa

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The 1995 rugby world cup was the first time South Africa had been allowed to play since apartheid ended. The team it fielded was almost entirely white and so were the supporters. A lot of black South Africans were rugby fans but they would cheer for whoever was playing against South Africa particularly New Zealand. Mandela approached the spring box captain who was this white guy named Francois Pinaire and basically asked him to make the point to the public that they represented the New South Africa.

If you live in South Africa, you definitely know someone who runs ultra-marathons, probably lots of someones. Here, ultras are the stuff of a whole country’s new years resolutions and mid-life crises. They’re the kind of thing that a totally ordinary, not-athletic person wakes up one day and decides they’re going to do -- and then does. In one of the most economically unequal countries in the world, extreme distance running is a sport that feels like it includes everybody. And improbably, that inclusiveness happened during one of the darkest, most divided moments in South Africa’s history – during the final years of apartheid.

The Comrades