Jo-Ané van Dyk: The rise of South Africa's new javelin queen

Big gestures in small places are sometimes enough to create a ripple that is felt well into the future.

What started as a desire for recognition when she was just a tween had turned into Olympic success for Jo-Ané van Dyk, the newly crowned queen of South African javelin throw.

The seed was first planted when the tiny, Heidelberg combined school with fewer than 200 pupils, honoured a fellow student following her javelin heroics at the national championships. “They held a whole assembly for her, complete with Chariots of Fire playing in the background while she also received a wreath,” Van Dyk recalled.

“Then I thought, 'I would also really like to have an assembly in my honour’.”

A year later, Van Dyk’s dream came true after winning the South African title for the first time.

“I also got my Chariots of Fire. They showed a video of me throwing and I still remember the ‘dum, dum, dum, dum, dum’ in the background.”

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Jo-Ané van Dyk: Following in the footsteps of giants

Fifteen years later, Van Dyk would again receive a hero’s welcome, this time with an Olympic silver medal around her neck.

Little did Van Dyk know when she took up the sport for the first time that she would one day become a junior world and Olympic medallist.

Although Van Dyk was a gifted netball player, she was a natural with the spear in hand as she dominated the sport at every national age-group level through to seniors.

Van Dyk made her first international appearance at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Donetsk where she finished sixth in the women’s javelin final. The following year she reached the final of the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games where she finished eighth.

Van Dyk was finally rewarded for her persistence winning the silver medal at the 2016 World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

The medal was another feather in the cap for internationally renowned javelin coach Terseus Liebenberg and the beginning of their successful partnership.

Liebenberg was the architect behind some of South Africa’s biggest javelin names on the international stage, including 1997 world champion Marius Corbett and Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist Sunette Viljoen.

The lull before the storm

Van Dyk’s early success did not immediately translate into success at a senior level as her career appeared to stall.

“There were a few years where it didn’t go great, and my throwing was relatively average. I only threw over 60 metres in 2021,” Van Dyk said.

“There was an element of sticking it out, but it also helped that I was a student-athlete. It wasn’t a case of, ‘Ugh, my life will come to an end because I am not doing well in athletics’.

“I was actually happy about it because I wanted to complete my studies before I could focus solely on athletics.”

Once Van Dyk focussed solely on athletics, she almost instantly landed world-class distances, reaching 60 metres for the first time in 2021. Her newfound form earned her a spot in the South African team for her first Olympics in Tokyo 2020.

In Tokyo, Van Dyk could not make it past the qualifiers, but the experience would serve as school fees were paid, holding her in good stead going forward.

“I only started doing well since I started focussing on athletics 100 percent. I tell people that I definitely did not achieve overnight success,” Van Dyk said.

“It is years in the making, and I think it really started when I started training with Oom Terseus.”

Van Dyk was on an upward trajectory reaching the finals at major international meetings including the 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2023 World Championships.

It is perhaps her performance at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest that offered evidence of Van Dyk’s rise in the international javelin throw ranks. Van Dyk was the only South African field athlete to make it into a final where she finished in 10^th place with a best heave of 57.43m.

Jo-Ané van Dyk and the architect of success

Following some introspection, Van Dyk suggested to her coach that they return to a full run-up after trialling a shorter rhythmic approach.

“It took us about a month of training sessions for me and Oom Terseus to get it right. When we got it right, we realised it was a great idea,” she recalled.

“It helped a lot this year (2024). Each year we take stock of what went well, what went wrong, and where can we improve.”

The adjustment worked like a charm. Van Dyk produced her career top seven distances – including her personal best of 64.22m – all in 2024.

A masterful strategist, Liebenberg meticulously planned for Van Dyk to reach her peak in Paris for a shot at winning a medal. By the time Van Dyk walked into the Stade de France, she was primed for a special performance and showed no sign of jitters.

“I knew how well prepared I was. I went into Paris knowing that this was the best I have ever been prepared for a competition,” Van Dyk said.

“I think it made me calm. I knew what I was capable of. In our last training session in Montpellier, we said, ‘Okay, I have three throws, and I need to reach the qualifying distance’. It was drilled into me, and we realised that my fourth throw was often my best. So, during the warm-up throws in competition, I would throw the javelin hard as if it were my first.”

Jo-Ané van Dyk: "It is like an out-of-body experience"

Van Dyk performed better than expected during the qualification round unleashing a personal best throw of 64.22m on her first attempt.

On the final night of track and field action, Van Dyk breathed life into her plan as she produced her best throw on her third attempt which moved her into silver-medal position. She opened with a 59.72m before adding two more metres but it was still not good enough to put her in medal contention.

When she landed what would become a career-defying throw, Van Dyk did not think she would end up on the podium expecting some of the name stars to deliver the goods over the remaining three rounds.

Van Dyk’s pessimism proved to be unfounded as she became only the second South African behind Viljoen to win an Olympic javelin throw medal, fishing second behind Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi.

“I think there was a bit of disbelief. You kind of feel detached, as if you are high, it feels unreal,” Van Dyk described her medal-winning moment.

“It is like an out-of-body experience. I can’t believe it! I don’t know how to describe it. It as if you see everything in the third person. I can’t believe this me. It’s crazy!”

To add another major milestone to her year, Van Dyk got married and moved from Potchefstroom in South Africa’s interior to Cape Town.

Van Dyk said she would continue to train under the tutelage of Liebenberg, but they still needed to figure out the practicalities of a long-distance training arrangement as she targets higher honours over the next four years.

Planning for the future

The 27-year-old Van Dyk has placed all her trust in Liebenberg, who has been instrumental in her success since she announced herself on the scene in 2016. Liebenberg is considered one of the best throwing coaches in the world. To add to his pedigree, Liebenberg assisted Paris 2024 men’s javelin gold medallist Arshad Nadeem over the last two seasons.

Van Dyk cited Liebenberg’s presence in Stade de France as having a calming effect on her during the final. But Liebenberg almost did not make it to Paris due to a lack of funding and support from South Africa’s athletics body.

The duo found a way with Van Dyk launching a crowd-funding campaign to get Liebenberg to the Games. Among the donors that made this happen were competitors bronze medallist Nikola Ogrodníková and Kathryn Mitchell of Australia.

“He (Liebenberg) is one of the most underrated coaches in South Africa and the most decorated considering how many world championship and Olympic athletes he has produced,” Van Dyk said.

“What makes him so good is his precision. He is precise, precise, precise with the way he works out the programme. He is the most intelligent person I know. If he doesn’t know something, he will research it or learn from other people. He would for example look at how coaches like Jan Železný does their training.”

Van Dyk revealed that funding challenges may be a thing of the past as she would partner with South African distance legend and Barcelona 1992 silver medallist Elana Meyer through her Endurocad academy.

“I am very excited about the future and looking forward to start throwing again. There are a few exciting things in the pipeline but we first need to get over the first hurdle of dealing with the distance between me and my coach,” Van Dyk said.

Next year’s world championships will be in Haruka’s backyard in Tokyo where Van Dyk will be looking to spoil her home party. Van Dyk also eyes success at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow which she hopes would set her up for a medal upgrade in LA 2028.