Cricket, Javelin, Olympics: Sunette Viljoen’s Remarkable Sporting Journey

WPL 2026 misses out on Olympic medalist and former cricketer Sunette Viljoen, whose remarkable career spans cricket, javelin, and international medals, highlighting her versatility and sporting achievements.

Sunette Viljoen (Image Source: Google)

This year, WPL misses out on Olympic medalist Sunette Viljoen, a rare dual-sport talent. The former South African cricketer, who played a Test and 17 ODIs, later became a world-class javelin thrower, winning silver at the Rio Olympics. Viljoen, 42, returned to cricket in domestic T20s and had even registered for the WPL, but franchises overlooked the seasoned Olympian despite her proven skill and versatility.

Sunette Viljoen, who registered for Rs. 30 lakh, represented South Africa in 1 Test and 17 ODIs between 2000 and 2002. Her only Test was against India in March 2002 in Paarl, scoring 17 and 71 (as an 18-year-old). In ODIs, made her debut in 2000 (as a 16-year-old against England and became the youngest South Africa women cricketer) and ended with 198 runs and five wickets. This included 8 matches played in the Women's World Cup (in New Zealand), 2000/01.

The only reason she chose to venture into athletics and forgo her international cricket career was because the women’s game was still amateur at that stage. ‘I was 18, just finished matric, and I was offered an athletics bursary. All my studies were paid by North West University so my parents didn’t have any expenses while I was studying, ‘she said.

A high school athletics coach had convinced her to take up javelin after seeing how far she could launch a cricket ball, in a sport she had been playing since she was a toddler. She had an innate ability to throw various objects over impressive distances.

In 2003 she switched her full attention to the javelin and won bronze at the All Africa Games in Nigeria and also competed at the World Athletics Championships in France.

She quickly rose through the ranks to the South African Olympic teams in 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing. While she had dominated in Africa and won one Commonwealth Games gold between those two Games, her global javelin dominance only came from 2011 onwards. The highlights were medals in the World Championships: silver in 2011 in Daegu and bronze in Beijing in 2015 and at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics five years later. She also won two Commonwealth gold medals and was a five-time African champion,

At Rio (in her fourth Games) she finished second behind Croatia's Sara Kolak, with her best throw of 64.92 metres (Kolak 66.18 m). She would have become an Olympic medal winner at the London 2012 Olympics also but finished fourth with a best throw of 64.53 metres. She became the first cricketer to win a Silver medal, after 96 years. The others had won bronze.

Niggling injuries, before Tokyo 2020 ended Sunette’s hope of a fifth Games appearance, but she bowed out with a long list of titles.

In general, cricketers switched to Olympics, after cricket. Sunette’s story is different. She played cricket, then found harmony as a javelin thrower and again turned to cricket and even registered for WPL. So when Sunette returned to cricket, she was an Olympic medal winner and many others also in the javelin. The second journey in cricket started with Easterns in the domestic T20 competition and signed for Titans Ladies at the age of 38.She had decided to take up playing cricket recreationally to keep active. ‘It was not something I was looking for. I just started to play cricket again.’

In return, Sunette had set her sights on representing South Africa at the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup on home soil, 20 years after she retired from the sport, at 40.

So by the time WPL came, Sunette was only one world athletics medallist who also played a cricket Test match and she was an Olympic medal winner who played in cricket World Cup. A hard-hitting right-hander suited to the top of the order but WPL looked at her age not the bundle of energy she had. She may be 42+ now but is still active and her last match was for LIONS WMN vs Dolphins WMN, at Durban in Women Pro20 played on Dec 14 2025. She scored 41 (off 38 balls) with 4 boundaries and helped her side to win by 2 runs.