South Africa competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation’s sixth consecutive appearance at the Olympics in the post-apartheid era. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) sent a total of 125 athletes to the Games, 67 men and 58 women, to compete in 17 sports.
Notable South African athletes featured track stars Oscar Pistorius and Caster Semenya, who both became the nation’s greatest highlight to the Games. Pistorius, a four-time Paralympic champion, set South Africa’s historical record as the first double-leg amputee to compete at the Olympics. Semenya, a middle-distance runner and a world champion who had been subjected to gender testing in 2009, became the nation’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
For the first time in its history, South Africa had won Olympic medals in rowing and in sprint canoeing. The South African team also featured past Olympic medalists, including swimmer Roland Mark Schoeman, who won a full set of medals in Athens, and long jumper Godfrey Khotso Mokoena