The first Olympic photographer with a disability and Pretoria native Johann Meintjes’s inspirational story is told in SuperSport’s riveting series, Real World Champions
Johann Meintjes is a photographer who not only shattered barriers but rewrote the script of what is possible by becoming the first photographer with a disability to cover the Olympic Games at Paris 2024.
Johann’s story is beautifully encapsulated in a moving five-minute episode as part of SuperSport’s Real World Champions campaign, the broadcaster’s attempt to go out of its way to find human stories of people who have used sport to uplift themselves and their communities.
His Olympic milestone was not just a professional accomplishment, it was the culmination of decades spent wrestling with a fate that sought to put him down.
Born in a mining town on the outskirts of Johannesburg, Johann was an unstoppable force from an early age.
“My parents heard about a gymnastics club starting at Monument High School,” he recalls. “They took me to have a look, and from then on, I was hooked.”
By his teens, he was representing the country as Springbok gymnast at international competitions, including the World Age Group Championships in Hawaii and later the World Championships in Switzerland.
“It was eye-opening,” he says. “We saw how far behind we were, but instead of discouraging us, it made us push harder, attempt more daring moves.”
By 1980, Johann achieved the unthinkable, finishing fourth at the World Championships in Brigg, Switzerland – a moment that should have cemented his legacy as one of South Africa’s greatest athletes. But fate had other plans.
“I went too low on a double back somersault and landed on my neck,” he recounts, his voice unwavering but heavy with memory. “One moment, I was an athlete at my peak. The next, I had to reckon with a new reality.”
Following surgery, Johann began the long, arduous road of building a life from scratch. Teaching had been his profession before the accident, and it became his anchor after it. Returning to the classroom, however, was no simple feat.
“There was no precedent for a teacher with a disability back then. I had to prove I could still do the job,” Johann. Supported by a principal whose father also used a wheelchair, Johann eventually resumed teaching, breaking barriers in a system not built for people in his position.
“You learn to adapt. To see strengths in others and nurture them,” he shares. Though teaching fulfilled him, gymnastics remained his first love. Photography became his way back to the sport.
“Photography gave me a new way to engage with the sport. It allowed me to tell stories through the lens that I could no longer tell with my body,” he says.
For Johann, the Olympics represent more than a stage for athletic prowess. They are a testament to the boundless possibilities of the human spirit. The boy who once dreamed of conquering the gymnastics floor achieved his Olympic dream his own way, through his camera lens. With his sights set on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the story is far from over.
Written by Kulani Nkuna. The full SuperSport Read World Champions featuring Johann Meintjes can be viewed on Youtube.
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SuperSport is looking for more champions like Johann to feature on its Real World Champions series. Do you know of someone who has used sport to uplift themselves and/or their community?
Send an e-mail of no more than 500 words explaining why the person should be profiled by SuperSport to realworldchamps@supersport.com.
