Unless you follow athletics pretty closely you probably wouldn’t have heard of Luvo Manyonga until this past weekend, when he jumped an outrageous 8.37 metres to claim Olympic silver in Rio.

In the wake of this performance much attention has turned to his troubled past, and the demons he has had to overcome in order to climb onto that podium.

USA Today have a great piece on Luvo, with some excerpts below:

In early 2012, Manyonga began using tik, a version of crystal methamphetamine popular in Cape Town. In March of that same year, he tested positive for the substance at a meet in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and was banned from the competition for 18 months.

At his lowest point, Manyonga was on the verge of death, he said.

“I can honestly say that I hit rock bottom,” he told the City Press, a South African newspaper, before the Games. “My life was a living hell after I was banned for using drugs and the way I was behaving was a one-way route towards self-destruction…

“I have done things of which I am truly ashamed, like burglaries, stealing mobile phones just to get money to buy the drug. You lose all perception of what is right or wrong. All that matters is to get your fix.”

It wasn’t until 2015, when Manyonga moved from his hometown of Mbekweni to Pretoria, one of the country’s three capital cities, that a once-promising career began to reclaim its potential.

It took the expertise of coach Mario Smith, who tragically died in a car accident back in 2014, and John McGrath to bring Luvo back from the depths of addiction to a place in SA’s sporting history.

Here’s the jump that won him silver:

Great jump #Manyonga for a Silver Medal https://t.co/iJXNFmyti7

— Jateen (@JateenKlopp) August 14, 2016

And his reaction immediately afterwards:

WATCH: A special moment for #RSA‘s Luvo Manyonga as he receives his #silver medal. #Rio2016 https://t.co/HDXfbHRTxN

— SuperSport (@SuperSportTV) August 15, 2016

As the dust settled the team at EWN caught up with him to talk about his incredible comeback:

Here’s IOL with some info on his family celebrating the win in Paarl:

“It was very difficult to raise Luvo up,” [Joyce] said. “Raising three children as a domestic worker was very hard.”

Joyce squeezed between family members who had piled into her house to sit round a paraffin heater and rehash Luvo’s victory…

Luvo’s brother, Sivuyile Manyonga, explained how tik seduced the young athlete.

“It’s a common drug, a cheap drug,” Sivuyile said. “For Luvo it was very hard, because he was coming from a poor background and he was earning too much money and he didn’t know how to use the money, so that is why he was using it on drugs.”

The final word from his coach, former Irish Olympic rower John McGrath:

“I believed in this kid since the second I met him,” McGrath said. “This kid is just the greatest jumper I’ve ever seen – the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen.”

He never had any doubt that he would be seeing his protégé on the Olympic podium.

“I had faith that Luvo was going to win a medal; the only question was what colour it was going to be,” he said.

But for all of his giftedness, Luvo still has immense obstacles to face – including the ghost of addiction.

“I hope he’s going to go on and do more, but I also expect he’s going to be challenged more,” Mc Grath said. “Those of us who have travelled the journey with Luvo are there to help him. We’ll all just keep our fingers crossed for him, love him and support him. That’s all we can do.”

Hopefully Luvo is given the necessary support when he arrives back home to ensure he only goes from strength to strength.

[sources:ewn&usatoday&iol]