Cameron Laurenson formed part of the first South African water polo team to qualify and play at the Olympics since 1960. Laurenson is a creature of the water, and he’s riding a high wave, as the centre back recently crossed oceans to compete in the International Swimming Federation’s (FINA) 2022 World Aquatics Championships.
When Olympic water polo player Cameron Laurenson is not competing in global tournaments, you are likely to find him at Rhenish Primary School, where he teaches and coaches water polo. “The kids are super fun,” says Laurenson. “Every now and again, someone’s going to say something ridiculous, and you can have a bit of a laugh.” PHOTO: Nakishka Skriker
Cameron Laurenson stands 197cm tall, but you’re more likely to have seen him at water-level, competing in last year’s Olympic Games as part of the South African (SA) water polo team.
It is an opportunity that Laurenson hadn’t even considered possible, he says. “This was the first time a South African team had been sent – a men’s team – since 1960,” he explains, standing poolside ahead of his daily practice.
The road to the rings
When Laurenson was first made aware that the SA team were going to compete in the Olympics, he was not in the right headspace to qualify. When the Olympics were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it gave him the break he needed from training and playing sports every day, he says.
Laurenson, who attended Stellenbosch University (SU) and still plays for the Maties Water Polo club, explains that the pandemic helped him balance sports and academics, as his classes moved online.
The pandemic did, however, also create some challenges. Finding time to train with the Covid-19 restrictions was difficult, with gyms and pools having been closed, explains Laurenson.
During training and attending selection camps, Laurenson says there was always the fear that the Olympics would be cancelled due to Covid-19 concerns.
Cameron Laurenson has been playing water polo for the greater part of his life. He has no plans to stop soon, instead aiming higher, and hoping to compete in a total of three Olympics by the age of 30, he says. “Some of my best mates have come from water polo and most of the people I do know are from the water polo community,” he says. Laurenson also hopes to stay in the sport long after he stops playing, which is what motivated him to become a coach, he explains. PHOTO: Nakishka Skriker
Laurenson trained for six hard months, he says, emphasising that the sport is physically very demanding. “It’s got the anaerobic component of wrestling and the aerobic component of swimming up and down,” he says, adding that it takes mental strength to do both.
Ahead of the Olympics, Laurenson trained and swam every day, and went to gym at least three times a week, he says.
He was constantly losing weight swimming, and says his solution was a diet consisting mostly of proteins and carbohydrates. “I think I must have eaten like six eggs a day,” he recalls.
A swimmer of all seas
Laurenson’s water polo career started when he was 10 years old, attending SACS Junior School in Cape Town. The first ‘big’ side he made was his school’s U13 A team, he says. He soon made his first provincial side, and later made his first national side when he joined the South African U17 B team. In his matric year, he made the national U18 A side. This gave him the opportunity to go to the International Swimming Federation’s World Aquatics Championships in 2016, he says.
After matriculating, Laurenson went to Australia and played for a club called the Barracudas and made the South African U20 water polo team. Over the next two years, he competed in two European Nations Cups, and one World Cup, he says.
Laurenson is an outstanding player, says Lwazi Madi, who captained South Africa’s Olympic water polo team last year. “Everyone who knows him knows he has a calm demeanor, but in the pool he finds that balance between calm and competitive,” he says.
Water polo has taken Laurenson many places. Germany, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, and Serbia are some of the places where Laurenson says he has competed.
Cameron Laurenson formed part of the first South African men’s water polo team to compete in the Olympics since 1960. Although he believes that winning games at the Olympics might not be realistic, he would like to be part of the stepping stone towards South African water polo teams eventually winning games at the event, he says. “It was incredible to be part of something that I never even knew would be an option,” says Laurenson. PHOTO: Nakishka Skriker
No stranger to the global stage of sport, Laurenson found out he was selected to compete at the Olympics three weeks ahead of the opening ceremony, he says.
Taking on Tokyo
“[The Olympics] was more than I ever thought it was going to be,” says Laurenson. “You’re representing your country on the world’s biggest sporting stage.”
The best part of the experience was being in the Olympic village, and brushing shoulders with all of sports’ giants, says Laurenson. He names Luka Dončić and Andy Murray as two of the most famous athletes he came across.
“The most amazing thing, probably, is that every single person you walk past is the best at what they do,” he says.
The water polo team was lucky enough to stay there “the entire time”, according to Laurenson. The team was in Tokyo for just short of a month, where “they were treated like superstars”, he says.
The only thing that put a damper on Laurenson’s experience was the fear of Covid-19. He had to do an antigen test every morning before brushing his teeth, and many athletes would keep to themselves in fear of catching the virus, Laurenson explains.
“Speaking to some of the athletes there, this Olympics was a lot more rustig,” he says.
The fact that there were no supporters in the stands, due to pandemic restrictions, did make competing less intimidating, says Laurenson. Seeing cameras and Olympic rings everywhere did ground the experience and make it a bit more daunting, though, he says.
The opening ceremony fully lived up to Laurenson’s expectations and he points to the lighting of the torch as a particularly special moment.
“The opening ceremony is something I’ve watched every Olympics,” he remarks. “It’s a massive privilege to walk out with some of your best mates and sing the national anthem on the highest stage of sport.”
Cameron Laurenson has been an integral member of Maties Water Polo ever since his arrival in 2018. This is according to Vaughn Marlow, coach of Maties Water Polo. Marlow describes Laurenson as a natural leader, who is always putting in his best efforts, and ensuring other members of his team do the same. PHOTO: Nakishka Skriker
Laurenson hopes to compete in the next Olympic Games in Paris in two years. His biggest athletic goal, he says, is competing in three Olympics before he turns 30.
“I’m sure if he keeps up with his work ethic, and [keeps] doing what he’s doing, he’ll be there come Paris 2024,” says Vaughn Marlow, coach for the Maties Water Polo club.
Marlow sees a successful future ahead of Laurenson, saying “he’s just starting to cement his place in the international men’s side”.
A fish out of water
Laurenson’s other great passion is teaching, he says. The Olympian graduated from SU with a BEd Intermediate Phase. He is currently a teacher at Rhenish Primary School, as well as a water polo coach.
Laurenson first started coaching in Australia during his gap year where he worked at a boarding house and coached high school water polo.
“The coaching is what drew me to teaching,” says Laurenson. He plans to continue coaching water polo when his professional sporting career comes to an end. “I was always keen on giving back to what I had been given so much from,” he adds.
I’ve always been drawn to the water.
Laurenson says he has always enjoyed helping people, so teaching was the natural choice for his future. As a teacher, he is able to help people, as well as be involved in sport his entire life, he explains.
“Kids are super fun,” Laurenson adds. “It’s nice to be in a space where you can talk about something silly, like ‘Who’s your favourite superhero?’, just to escape everything that is actually difficult about being an adult.”
Meditating on life
“I’ve always been drawn to the water,” says Laurenson. “I always tell people that I started surfing at two or three years old. My dad took me out to Muizenberg and put the water-wing floaties on so that I wouldn’t drown.”
Laurenson believes that surfing had a huge influence on his water polo abilities and fitness. During school, he would swim during the water polo off-season – this is when the waves were best, according to Laurenson. Surfing always made him the fittest in his teams, he notes.
With surfing you’re not really thinking of how tired you are, says Laurenson. “You’re thinking ‘I have to try to get under this wave before it breaks on my head’.”
It is no surprise to see the success of Olympic water polo player, Cameron Laurenson, says Lwazi Madi, who captained South Africa’s Olympic water polo team last year. “Cam is a close friend of mine and one of the most dedicated individuals when it comes to his water polo,” he says. PHOTO: Nakishka Skriker
Laurenson has always been drawn to nature and the outdoors, which is why he loves surfing. “I’ve gotten quite into meditation over the last two years and something that I didn’t realise was that surfing was always my meditation – just being fully present,” says Laurenson.
“You can’t think of everything happening on land,” he says. Instead, he enjoys always watching the next wave, asking himself if the peak is yet to come.
This philosophy has given him a better understanding of life and people and allowed him to see himself in others, he says.
“We’re all just living things on this earth,” says Laurenson. “I’m me and I just happen to be an Olympian as well.”