South African long jumper Jovan van Vuuren revealed on Sunday he was the victim of a personal attack which included death threats via WhatsApp messages the day before he was due to compete at his first Olympic Games.
The 28-year-old said he didn’t want to make excuses for not making it through the long jump qualification on Sunday, but that he’d been mentally shaken by the messages, which included personal details about his family and his best friend who had died by suicide in 2018.
“Luckily the psychologist at Sascoc, she jumped in. I immediately went to her just to recover mentally from this. But last night it crept up and started getting difficult to process. "The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee is aware of the threats and has offered unconditional support to the athlete. He is also receiving professional counselling from Team SA’s psychologists. In addition, the matter has been handed to the relevant authorities, including the police, for investigation."
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