WCG officially celebrates 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Bianca Buitendag

This morning, 6 September 2021, Premier Alan Winde and Minister Anroux Marais officially celebrated Bianca Buitendag on bringing home the silver medal in Women’s Surfing from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

At the official meet and greet, hosted at the Premier’s official residence, Leeuwenhof, The Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, said: “I commend Bianca Buitendag on her successes at the Olympics. She is an inspiration to the many young female athletes of our province and our country, who may also aspire to participate in the Olympics. Her success is a testament to what can be enjoyed through passion and sheer grit. It was a pleasure to meet and congratulate her in person today together with Minister Marais”

Minister Anroux Marais added, “As a professional surfer from Victoria Bay, Bianca grew up in an ocean loving family and started surfing at a very young age, exploring the Southern Cape’s coast for as long as she can remember. She started her competitive surfing career at age 10 and was crowned 6-times South African National champion before the age of 16. She then turned professional, going on the World Championship Tour in 2013, at the age 19. She was on Tour for 5 years, ended 4th in the world rankings in 2015, had final finishes in 4 World Tour events and has now recently brought home the silver medal at the Olympics held in Tokyo this year”.

After the official meet and greet at Leeuwenhof, together with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Bianca will visit Lavender Hill High School and the 9miles Project at Strandfontein Pavillion. At these engagements she will share her experiences as an Olympian Surfing medalist to motivate the idea that nothing stops our youth from achieving what she has and that she looks forward to seeing them at the next Olympics in Paris.

We are excited to join Bianca in a similar tour in her hometown of Victoria Bay and the greater George region in the near future to determine how best we can assist in her new endeavors to create increased opportunities for aspiring young surfers across the Western Cape.

As the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games now also comes to an end, we are proud of our Team SA’s participation on the world stage and particularly congratulate our Western Cape Paralympians: Anrune Weyers on her gold medal in the Women’s 400m Athletics, Mpumalelo Mshlonge for breaking his own world record in the Men’s 200m and Kerwin Nomdoe for breaking the African Record in the Men’s Shotput. We look forward to officially celebrating their successes on their safe return home.