Stephanus ("Fanie") Johannes du Plessis (23 February 1930 – 13 August 2001) was a

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

er and

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

ter, who represented

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

at two

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...

and

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

.Biography sports-reference
He was twice gold medalist at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

(in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

and

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

, then known as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games) in the men's discus throw event.

Biography

Stephanus ("Fanie") Johannes du Plessis was born on 23 February 1930 in Lichtenburg, South Africa. As an athlete he specialised in the throwing events and had international success in two disciplines, the discus and the

. Before South Africa was banned from the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

and the

, Plessis represented his country in both arena. He did not achieve podium finishes in the Olympics and it is said that when once asked by his manager why he hadn't done as well as his best he replied "I was bewitched". In the final two Commonwealth Games that South Africa competed in before their ban, Fanie du Plessis dominated the men's discus-throw. In 1954 so dominant was he that he surpassed the Games' record with every one of his throws until he finally won with a distance of 51,70mFloris J. G. Van der Merwe ''A history of sport and physical education in the Republic of South Africa'', page 24, Issue 82; (SAASSPER publications), 1986, , At the 1954 Games he also won bronze in the

Shot Put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

. In 1958 he again won gold in the discus. His best throw was 56.32m in 1959. He died in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

, aged 71.

References

1930 births 2001 deaths South African male discus throwers South African male shot putters Athletes (track and field) at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for South Africa Commonwealth Games gold medallists for South Africa Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for South Africa Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics People from Lichtenburg Afrikaner people Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games {{SouthAfrica-athletics-bio-stub