Benefits: Physicians Fathokuhale Zondi realized that she could connect both her passion and therapy. Photo: Supplied
Elite class from the edge of rugby areas and Olympic game For boardrooms of sports and educational institutions, Fathokuhale Zondi has crossed the malicious difficulties in making her place as a woman in sports therapy.
Zondi42, a sports and exercise medical doctor, has worked with some greatest players and women in South Africa and is broken gender Obstacles, when at the age of 27, she joined Blue bulls Rugby team as a junior medical officer.
She went to work as a medical officer for the 2012 Junior SpringBox team, who were with the players who became the Rugby World Cup winners-Handra Pollard, Peter-Sightf Do Tit, Bongi Monambi, JC Carell and Winnt Coach were among them.
He later worked as Chief Medical Officer for Team South Africa at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2016 Rio Paralympics, 2017 World Games and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he worked Musk semenya,
At the age of 33, he was appointed as the Chief Executive of Sports Science Institute, South Africa, a post he held for four years.
As Chairman of the Medical Advisory Commission for the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (2016-2024), he guided athlete care and clinical standards. Zondi also served as the chairman of the South African Sports Medicine Association from 2015 to 2017.
The progress of his rapid growth in sports medicine has made him a trailblazer in the male-oriented region. He has a passion for sports – he grew up in a sporty family, his father fulfilled four Comrade Marathon – and the power to change individuals.
“I was always very sporty. And at some point it was more than an interest. It was, like, I just love it. I love it. What the field I am on, it makes me in the context of connections, friends, contacts,” he said.
She was also interested in biology at school and, as a high achievement in an environment where young people believed that “you should be a doctor, an advocate or an accountant, one of the three doctors appealed to me the most”.
“My sister heard an interview on SAFM with Sports Medicine’s father Tim Nose, and she said, ‘You have to hear this.’
Zondi obtained a degree in medicine at Cape Town University, Master Degree at Sports Medicine at Pretoria University and MBA at Gordon Institute of Business Science.
She blames her successful career for her guru, Professor Christa Jens Vans Ranceberg, who was her supervisor in the Sports Medical Department at Pretoria University and recommended Zondi when Blue Bulls demanded a junior medical officer to join the team.
“When he first asked me, I laughed. I was, like, do you see me? No, it’s not going to work,” Zondi said.
It was probably one of the most difficult times for him; A black woman who was to prove herself in a white male-oriented region. But the occasion opened the doors to her that she could not imagine.
“I found myself in Blue Bulls through the encouragement of my then patron and supervisor. It was a very interesting ‘period,” he said.
“When I entered there, it was clearly a very Africa environment. I felt that outside the place, it was black, young woman – and I had dreaded,” she remembered.
“The player (will) the doctor of his home goes to his GP for another opinion, while I was an expert.
“Initially, I was quite angry. Nine out of 10 times he would come back to me and say,” The doctors of my house say you are right. ” But at some point … I realized that they are not doing so because they know me;
He also recalled examples of being wrong for a physiotherapist or massage doctor on the field.
“We also go to hospitals if we were playing away, and I would say that I am Dr. Zondi and hand over my patient to the doctor and, especially if they were African and men, they would change and talk to my male manager.
“It was difficult, but at the same time it was probably the most early year, and I could not say better learning than Blue Bulls, and it really became a platform for the rest of its career.”
He said that apart from cultural differences, he got outstanding support from the team management.
“I realized that I really love rugby and the real performance environment speaks exactly for my characteristics and my strength. I left from there to become a team doctor for 2020 Junior Box. And then, from there, I started working with World Rugby as a teacher, and then senior teachers and trainers, training doctors, which is now on a regional base”
The turn came when he was offered a post in the World Rugby’s Medical Educator Program – exactly six weeks after giving birth.
“I said,” I can’t come until I bring my child. ” And the manager said, “This is fine, bring your grandmother too.” This is what women need opportunities – and the atmosphere that allows us to show us. ,
Recently, Zondi was appointed to provide an input for the case of athletics South Africa to lead the Medical Expert Team, which challenges the eligibility regulation proposed for women classification against the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). In February 2019, the case was heard in the Mediations Court of Arbitration for the game.
The panel ruled that IAAF rules, in which athletes were required to reduce their testosterone to compete in certain events, were essential and proportional despite being discriminatory.
This meant that athletes such as Caster Semenya, who had a 5-alpha-resuctase deficiency, would need to take medication to reduce their testosterone if they wanted to continue competition in 400 meters and a mile international programs.
Zondi said that the medical world is still completing the complications of gender, human rights and fairness in the sports competition.
“This is very controversial, because I think this issue is not a simple. There are human rights cases and then clearly there are issues related to fair sports and are related to creating an environment that protects women, women,” she said.
“I think on the issue of human rights, there will be a unanimous concern that someone will need to accept those individuals they are, although they are related and how they want to show. But there is a complexity for sports performance, in particular, especially, if you understand biology and even performance physiology and how hormones can affect physical performance.
“For a man who has passed through puberty, there are lots of performance benefits and for a person who becomes transgender after puberty, there is evidence that the performance can benefit. If the change occurs before the puberty, it is more suspicious,” he said.
“I don’t know what is the solution and I think the world of mass sports is still arguing how to adjust matters of human rights, while also paying attention to the performance benefits of men who become women after puberty,” Zondi said.
He talked about what women still return to the game.
“The first challenge is being given a seat on the table. Unfortunately, the way many of our regime and other structures are formed now, women are still in minority, so there is no parity.
“In other words, you have to get an invitation in the table to give doctors, physics, team management, sports science, from governance and administrative positions, field-side and everything.
“There is no parity within those roles in terms of equity and even in terms of research, as committees still dominate men.”
The second issue is financial inequality.
“After working in some governance structures and looking at financials, women are not paid the same as men. And then, it is on the ground, athletes also support themselves with personnel and leadership.”
They believe that women should be given equal opportunities in an environment that enable them to flourish, embrace the fact that they can also be a mother.
This idea of re -shaping systems to support – not sideline – women are now in their work heart.
Her mission as the mother of two daughters is both professional and personal.
“I am committed to creating a world where my daughters can flourish despite Their race or gender“He said. He joined the zondi University of Quazulu Natal As an academic at the school of Clinical Medicine at 1, May May be May May be May to help strengthen the research and teaching of the institute in the field of medicine.