Top Marathoner Mokoka to connect Cape Town and Paris

Three times Cape Town Marathon Champion, Stephen Mokoka, will spearhead South Africa’s Olympic Marathon challenge in Paris but he will also play an ambassadorial role by handing an important letter from Geordin Hill-Lewis, Mayor of Cape Town, to his Parisian counterpart, Anne Hidalgo, on completion of the marathon.

The letter highlights strong tourism, sporting, climate change and biodiversity connections between the two capital cities.

Three times winner of the Cape Town Marathon, Mokoka, is well-placed for the ambassadorial role and says he looks forward to the opportunity of meeting Mayor Hidalgo after the marathon on 10 August – the penultimate day of the XXXIII Olympiad.

 Born and raised at 600 Village in Mafikeng in the North West Province, Mokoka now lives with his family in Pretoria. But he has often spoken of Cape Town, where he has enjoyed many of his triumphs as a distance athlete, as his ‘second home’. 

 “I’ve enjoyed running in Cape Town,” said multi-record and title holder, Mokoka. “Apart from the four Cape Town Marathons (three wins and one second place), I’ve enjoyed racing success on the track and in road races, such as the Two Oceans Half Marathon and Run Your City Cape Town 10km. 

“I’m pleased to be given a chance to connect Cape Town Marathon with the Olympics and perhaps one April I’ll return to France to race in Paris Marathon!”

 In an electronic version of the letter, sent on the eve of the opening ceremony, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis congratulated Mayor Anne Hidalgo on hosting the XXXIII Olympiad on the centenary of the 1924 Paris Games, and referred to a number of points of commonality between Cape Town and Paris. 

Both cities regularly feature in popular and more scientific lists of the World’s Best Cities, have taken leadership positions around climate change and biodiversity and have hosted some of the world’s biggest sporting events, said Mayor Hill-Lewis in his letter.

Paris, in the form of Île de France, was one of the twenty-two global cities which made up the Cape Town-led Local Action for Biodiversity project some fifteen years ago. Cape Town is the world’s most biodiverse city.

Mayor Hill-Lewis expressed his delight at Cape Town’s recent collaboration with Paris on its Liveable Urban Water programme, hoping that the collaboration might have added some value to Paris’ impressive work to rehabilitate the Seine River.

The City of Cape Town’s leaders played a significant role at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in December 2015, until this year’s Olympics the largest-ever international event in Paris and leading to the adoption of the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change.

196 member nations or ‘parties to the convention’ signed the Agreement, only marginally fewer than the 204 countries taking part in the Paris Olympics.

“It was an important event as it led to an agreement that countries would drive down their greenhouse gas emissions to keep the average global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” said former distance athlete, Helen Davies, who attended the conference in her capacity as head of the City’s Environmental Policy and Strategy team.

In similar vein, the Paris Olympic Committee have pulled out all the stops to deliver a carbon-neutral Olympic Games – the first in Olympic history.

Mayor Hill-Lewis referenced that success, which follows Cape Town Marathon’s world lead in declaring itself carbon-neutral. He also highlighted the value that the respective city marathons bring to the health and wellbeing of their communities.

Mayor Hill-Lewis expressed his delight that Mokoka will deliver a special printed version of the letter to Mayor Hidalgo in person in Paris and concluded with the hope that the Paris Games will be a true embodiment of the Olympic motto of “Plus vite, Plus haut, Plus fort – Emsemble”.

Meanwhile, it’s over to Mokoka to deliver both a top-level performance in what could be his final Olympic Marathon as well as the letter to Mayor Hidalgo.