It’s a hot sweltering day at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where the final five men who made it through the heats line-up for the event’s premiere contest, the men’s 100m sprint. High above them a massive digital billboard displays the current world record, Usain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds, which has stood since 2009.
The line-up includes an Australian of Sudanese heritage, an American, two Jamaicans, an athlete from Botswana, and one, surprising contestant from a tiny township in Cape Town, South Africa known as Bishop Lavis.
His name is Kyle Zinn
Bishop Lavis, now known for its high crime rate and gang violence where local communities live below the poverty line and daily life includes the very real prospect of not making it alive through every new day, was once a town with a future.
But that was a long, long time ago when the town was named after Sidney Warren Lavis (1873–1965), an English-born Anglican Bishop who worked to improve living conditions for the poor and marginalized in the Cape Peninsula during the early 1900s
Fast forward to the 2028 Olympics with a global audience of hundreds of millions, a 25-year-old (currently 23) survivor of Lavis, who rose above his challenging beginnings, now adjusts his spikes in the starting blocks, hoping to upend the world order, by putting Lavis on the global map.
Kyle goes into super focus mode, the quiet ringing in his ears confirmation that he has entered the zone and is connected to the energies of the sporting gods. Visions of those who laid the tracks before him blink through his mind… Wayde van Niekerk…Cheslin Kolbe, Bryan Habana, Manie Libbok…Herschelle Gibbs Those who shattered the illusion that the top echelons of the sporting world only belonged to people who lived on the other side of the apartheid divide.
He takes a deep breath, eyes closed. The roar of the crowd goes silent in his mind as he feels the bite of the track on his outstretched bare hands.
He knows he has entered the zone when the Fast-Twitch fibres of his powerful leg muscles correctly anticipate the sound of the starting gun going off, exploding him into action.
Everything slows down to slow-motion. He can hear his breathing, calm and relaxed, he feels his heart pounding as it pumps the fuel burning oxygen through his blood, turbo-charging his first 25 meters.
To his left, he catches a peripheral image of a glistening, long-legged dark form, two strides ahead of him, while on his right shoulder he hears the thundering footfalls of the Jamaican runner a mere half-step behind him.
With 50 meters to go, the images in his head switch from slow-motion to super-fast-forward.
His whole life flashes through his mind in a millisecond. All the days his mom and extended family braved hot sun and storming rains to watch him practice day in and day out at the UWC track. The time he had to swallow his pride and attend school in broken shoes and school bag because the family were barely surviving. The trauma of having to deal with his dad’s untimely passing and having to miss the funeral because he was competing in Germany on that day. The impact of mom’s decision to move him and his younger brother Riley back to Bishop Lavis from Durban, now 18 years ago. The times he was robbed at knife or gun point, or offered drugs while walking to or from his house in Bishop Lavis.
The memories seem to unleash a silent roar of power. His face contorts into a grimace of determination, his fists ball into thunderbolts… his stride lengthens, quickens… In a flash, it’s over.
He snaps out of the zone and back to a thunderous reality of applause from a delirious audience. Up on the big screen he sees the unthinkable, his name, Kyle Zinn, and the words NEW WORLD RECORD 9.56s.
Wakey, Wakey
Kyle hears his mom, Danusha’s voice as he checks the time on the clock in his room in their flat in Brackenfell where they’ve been living now for 3 months.
So ends his recurring dream as he gets out of bed to prepare for another day of training. Kyle is a Batchelor of Administration student at UWC and a member of their Athletics program.
He has a personal best of 10.26 in the 100m and also competes in the 200m.
Highlights of his career includes finishing 5th in the 100m and picking up a silver medal in the relay event at the World Student Games. He also claimed the SA u/23 100m Gold Medal and the SA Seniors 200m Gold Medal. His current personal best times are 10:13 – 100m; 20.65 – 200m and 38.80 – 4x100m relay. His achievements are well-documented on social media.
I asked Danusha about her son’s journey and the challenges she faced. “Kyle has always been fiercely competitive and it began to show in a sporting sense when he started playing rugby at school. Later he made the switch to Athletics. “
“I think my story is not unique insofar as many women and families face the same challenges that I did raising my children. The communities we live in come with unique obstacles, which can very easily derail your future and in some cases end your life prematurely. We are all aware of this. The difference is support from family and friends who believe in you and your family.”
I ask Kyle how important is his role as a sporting role model. “I think it’s very important because kids in our communities are born into situations they did not ask for and it’s a daily struggle just to stay alive. So, when you have people from the same community who have broken the cycle and are pioneering new paths to success, we have to continue to encourage them to overcome the obstacles left by our collective generational trauma. In a small way, this is also what I hope my journey adds to.”
From the introduction you can tell that Kyle’s long-term dream is to make an impact at the next Olympic games. But for now, he is gearing up to do battle with local foes at the upcoming SA Athletics Championships to be held in Stellenbosch in March 2026.
Good luck Kyle, Lavis is agter jou and the entire community has your back! Go make us proud!
