Mandy Dean from Port Elizabeth was a trailblazer for SA triathletes competing internationally. Part of a small group of South Africans who made their way around Europe in 1989, here is the first installment of her amazing story.
"After good 1989 season in South Africa, we decided to go over to Europe and see if I could get onto the pro circuit using my German passport. We went over to do the Nice International again, where I repeated my sixth place.
After that race, I was invited to an Olympic distance race in Toulon in Southern France. So Simon Lessing, Kevin Richards, Mike Myers, Andrew Dean and I squeezed into a tiny hire car with all our bikes and bags and somehow and went to the race. Simon and I both won and from then on were sought after by race directors all over France.
Like a band of gypsies we travelled from event to event, making enough money to get us to the next race. Simon, Kevin and I then got invited to join a triathlon team in a small town in the south of France called Salon de Provence, between Avignon and Marseilles. The club got us an apartment and organised our race schedule. We stayed with them for 3 years and, in our final year, received sponsorship from a supermarket chain; we got free food, which was a great help.
Simon, Kevin and I once arrived at a race up in the mountains very late because we got lost getting there. No one was around and the town was asleep. With nowhere to go we found the transition area and decided to sleep there. It was freezing so we put on all the clothes we had in layers and climbed into our bike bags. We got some really funny looks and laughs in the morning when the athletes started arriving and we were still zipped up in our bike bags. But they stopped laughing when Simon and I won the race!"
