Len Tau & Jan Mashiani: SA Sporting History's Forgotten Men

The names of Len Tau and Jan Mashiani ought to be familiar with most South Africans; after all they were a part of the country’s 1^st ever representatives at Olympic Games when they participated at the 3^rd Olympiad in St Louis in 1904 and indeed were the continent’s first black athletes to compete at the Games. However their story is not celebrated; no facilities, awards or scholarships are named in their honour and most of what you would find on the net and what you would read about them is a little obscure. 

Background

In 1904, the city of St Louis in the United States hosted the World’s Fair, a celebration of all the different peoples of the globe. Tau and Mashiani were in St Louis as labourers of General Piet Cronje who held a Boer exhibit and a stage play at the Fair. Due to this event’s popularity, interest in the Olympics fell by the way side and only athletes from 13 countries competed n the Games. To avoid disaster and meager attendance, organizers of the Olympics opened up the event and invited everybody to participate which is how Tau and Mashiani were allowed to compete. 

Marathon

Len Tau (left) and Jan Mashiani (right)

Tau and Mashiani competed in the marathon event and finished 9^th and 13^th respectively on a scorching hot day in St Louis were half of the runners didn’t complete the race.  Records say it was a comical race; the race was won by Thomas Hicks of America in the slowest time ever recorded for the marathon at the Olympic, a record that still stands today. Hicks was fed egg whites and brandy during the race to keep his energy levels and stamina up and it widely told that Tau would have finished the race in a quicker time and finished higher placed had he not been chased by a dog which forced him to stray off the curse for several miles.  

Legacy

Tau who is recorded in some history books as Lentauw, Len Taw or Len Taunyane and Mashiani who is also referred to as Yamasian didn’t return to the country triumphantly or to any sort of rousing welcome as is the norm with our athletes and sports teams today. I was a little saddened to see that most the records and re-tellings of this almost unlikely story are from overseas stories. It seems as though history has tucked away the story these two men and in a land where we celebrate the modern heroes  legends of folklore are forgotten.