Student represents SA at the Olympics

Banyana Banyana and TUT womens football player Mary Ntsweng represented South africa at the London Olympics .

Robert Mabusela

"My most memorable moment was playing against the team that is ranked first in the world at the London Olympics". Those were the words of Tshwane University of Technology`s play maker, Mary Ntsweng who you might have spotted wearing the jersey number 10 during the Olympic games broadcasts.

TUT Women's football team player Mary Ntsweng represented South Africa at the 2012 London Olympics. Ntsweng who is a second year Human Resources student took a break from her studies as she reported for national duty. Ntsweng played in Banyana Banyana's opening 4-1 loss against Sweden and their final Olympic fixture, where they produced their best performance to hold up World cup champions Japan to a goalless draw on the 31st of July. Although Ntsweng didn't play in all of the matches played at the Olympics, she feels that having played at the Olympics will help her share some of her experience with her team at the University who are currently first on the University Sports of South Africa league (USSA).

TUT women`s football coach Tebogo Mokae was pleased with Ntswengs performance, “she played very well considering the fact that it was the first time a South African women’s football participate at the biggest stage, but her participation at an internationally level wasn`t the first. Besides everything I am happy she went and represented the University and the Country at large, hopefully she will come and share the experience with the team” said Mokae. Watching Ntsweng play at the Olympics was also exciting for her team mates " I’m proud of her performance at the Olympics as it showed that she put in a lot of hard work at the Olympics and it is motivating for us as players because it gives us the sense that if she can do it then we can also do it" said team mate Koketso Tlailane.

Playing at the fore front of the world in a team that is ranked first in Africa has its responsibilities, Ntsweng will now have to catch up on the work that she missed from the time the Banyana squad started preparing for the Olympics until she arrived back from London. A catch up program has been organised by TUT`s Department of Human Resources to make sure that she catches up on the work she missed.