Olympic silver medallist Jo-Ane van Dyk's parents will be reimbursed, Gayton McKenzie promises

Sports, Arts, and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie has vowed his department will reimburse Olympic silver medallist Jo-Ane van Dyk's parents for the money they used to help her prepare for the Paris Games.

Following her heroics in the women's javelin, where she walked away as a silver medallist at Stade de France, Van Dyk told TimesLive how her parents supported her financially on her journey.

Upon learning about this, McKenzie, through his X account, said things would be different under his tenure as sports minister, apologising to athletes who have had to fund their careers out of their own pockets to represent the country.

Read| Van Dyk throwing her name into the history books just the jolt Team SA needed to wrap up Paris Games

During Tuesday's welcome ceremony for Team SA at OR Tambo International Airport, the minister addressed the Van Dyk matter, saying he spoke to her and assured her that her parents would be reimbursed.

"This morning [Tuesday], I spoke to Van Dyk; she got a silver medal. She's everywhere in the media, where she's complaining that her parents used their last money to get here and there. I had a long chat with her, and I listened to her," McKenzie said.

"I can promise you; we are going to make sure we give her father his money back. You can't celebrate the medal [without investing]; it's like wanting to compliment the meat, but you don't want to go hunt the Springbok.

"I commit here today that the money the father put himself into debt for - I'm told - I commit publicly that the Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture should give him his money back because that investment paid off."

He added the department in the seventh administration intended to support athletes and federations financially to increase