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13 hours ago
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Sprawled prone in the dirt, the cold metal of a baseball bat cracking against his skull, spine and down to the legs that had once propelled him to glory, Luvo Manyonga experienced an epiphany. This existence could not continue; he must change his life or die.
Manyonga had been a drug addict for as long as he could remember, seeking recreational highs that provided the opposite of the performance-enhancing shortcuts that some of his deceitful athletics rivals might have pursued.
At times, he just about kept his habit in check. Never for long periods – not even when at his sporting peak. But sufficiently enough for him to win South Africa’s first world long jump title in London in 2017, a year after he had claimed Olympic silver in Rio.
Manyonga’s best leap of 8.65m a few months before that world gold was the biggest anywhere in the world for close to a decade, and his publicly-stated goal was to become the first person in history to jump nine metres. It did not seem beyond the realms of possibility.
But, lying prostrate on the floor while receiving a beating for his latest misdemeanour in late 2023, such sporting aspirations seemed a lifetime ago.
Manyonga was stuck in a desperate cycle, forever craving the euphoria of his next hit. Having already served an 18-month ban in 2012 for using tik, a form of crystal meth prolific in South Africa’s townships, he was handed a four-year suspension from athletics in late 2020 for failing to update his whereabouts for doping testers as his addiction again spiralled into a chaotic existence.
The man who had jumped over cars for fun as a teenager and whose effervescent personality had endeared him to athletics fans worldwide began plunging to new depths. Dropped by his management and starved of the sport that provided salvation, the sudden death of his mother left him bereft.
“I felt like there was nothing left for me,” says the 35-year-old Manyonga, his taut muscles rippling under a smart polo shirt providing a contrast to the gaunt specimen he became during those drug-fuelled years.
“After my mum passed on that’s when I decided my life was over. She was the pillar of my life. She kept me going. The wagon lost its wheels and everything started going south.”
The next three years passed in a haze of drugs, predominantly tik but he also dabbled in crack cocaine, which fortunately did not agree with him. The only reminder of his former life was the ID card frequently required to convince people he was the same man who had once conquered the athletics world.
“My life was crazy,” he says. “I was just living for another fix. I got to the point where I was robbing people, snatching phones, breaking into houses, just to get a fix. That’s how low I went.
“I just had to wake up in the morning and numb the pain because I didn’t want to accept that I had a problem.”
Seeking a means of sourcing his next hit one day in 2023, Manyonga stole a phone belonging to the daughter of a community patrol member near Paarl. When the patrol caught up with him, they used a baseball bat to deliver their own form of life-changing retribution.
“I couldn’t walk for a week,” he recalls. “That’s when the penny dropped for me. I saw my life flash in front of me when those guys were beating me.
“The only thing left for me was death, because that’s the life of a drug addict. So I decided then that either I would kill myself or go on with my life. I needed to find Luvo Manyonga.”
Requiring a fresh start, he left his township of Mbekweni behind and headed to the Eastern Cape, away from the lure of drugs that had ensnared him for so long. He got himself clean, shed the life of crime and hatched a plan.
When his athletics ban expired in December 2024, Manyonga quietly set about training again. A few months later, he stood at the end of a long jump runway for a tiny meet in Stellenbosch ready to compete for the first time in close to six years.
“It brought all the memories back of where I’d come from, through the journey that I went through,” he says. “To be able to stand on that runway, healthy and look forward to being able to do what Luvo does best, it was quite emotional, man.”
His 7.31m effort that day was a far cry from the athlete who had topped the world podium eight years prior, but it was a start. Taken on board by the World Wide Scholarships organisation, he moved to Johannesburg to live with a new coach, Herman Venske. A familiar routine emerged of sunrise gym work, midday rest and afternoons at the track.
Slowly but surely, his distances improved, reaching eight metres for the first time in October and then soaring to 8.11m last month.
That was sufficient to secure a place at this week’s World Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland, where he returns to the global stage as a man taking full responsibility for his actions.
“I am human. I make mistakes,” he says. “I don’t sugarcoat that. I was the one who was not there for my [anti-doping] whereabouts. I never used any substance to cheat sport, it was just a recreational drug that I used. I had a problem. But now I have learned my lesson. I have recognised who Luvo Manyonga is.”
He would like his experience to provide a cautionary tale of what can happen when a young person is plucked from poverty to gain instant success and accompanying fame.
Manyonga never finished school. No one in his family had any idea how to help a child who was suddenly exposed to greater sums of money than he had ever dreamed possible. His support network was woefully insufficient, and he began using recreational drugs when still a teenager, before he even won the world junior title in 2010.
“I came from a small township and nobody had experienced fame or been around the world at a young age,” he says. “A lot of things happened for me very quick. I got big-headed and thought I owned the world. My drug use was something that was pending to explode.”
The initial 18-month doping ban in 2012 had little impact. Throughout his elite career, he would smoke tik during the off-season, only stopping a couple of months prior to each summer. Incredibly, he still achieved global success.
“Sport can give you a natural high so, when I wasn’t in sport, I would look for something that would give me that,” he says. “Whenever I came back to South Africa, I wanted that feeling.
“I thought that I could manage it. I thought I could balance competing in the season and then, in the off-season, do my drugs. But nobody can cheat drugs. Those things are evil.
“You will get to a point where they take over, they rule your life, you depend on them.”
When Manyonga now speaks, he does so with total clarity for the first time since his youth, clean of drugs from the day he received that beating in 2023: “Me trying to take another [drug] hit right now is death for me.”
The exuberance that lit up stadiums worldwide has visibly returned. His exceptional circumstances have seen him welcomed back into the sport in a manner unlike any other twice-banned athlete, and he is relishing the chance to line up as the oldest long jumper at the world indoors.
“I’m so excited,” he says. “I know for a fact that I still have big jumps and gold medals in my body. I still have to give these youngsters a game. I feel like I’m getting better and better with each competition.
“Muscle memory you never forget. Last year was a start up. I’m like a car that was parked for four years. I just need to drive it for a while. The engine is still fresh, the tyres and oil have been changed. The V12 is going to be showing some flames soon.”
The trademark smile flashes across the face of one of athletics’ biggest entertainers. He has been to hell and back more than once. This last opportunity means too much to waste.
