Some people just run on a higher octane than others. Janey-Heather Wood is that girl. She runs on 440 volts while the rest of us lesser mortals are on 220.
She has the personality of a small village and the energy level of three large ones.
Her dad, Haydon, tells me that already at the age of six or seven she told him that she wanted to be a Springbok one day.
Mom Anita tells me that Janey has a will like concrete. When she sets her mind to something and digs her heels in, that is the way it is going to be.
Janey’s can do/will do attitude comes from mom but her stamina and endurance come from dad.
Dad has completed three full Ironman races, many half Ironmans and Comrades, the Two Oceans, climbed Kilimanjaro and completed the Washie.
No doubt about it, Janey has good genes and she is driving her good start like Tiger Woods off a golf tee.
Janey smiles and laughs a lot. She is an absolute tonic to talk to.
Even when she was totally heartbroken, debilitated with a huge back injury and locked out of any sport with a nine-month rest period back in 2024, she still radiated humour.
She loves true grind. The more blood, sweat and tears in the training, the happier she is.
If her coach makes her do plank crawls over a rough carpet until her elbows bleed, she is 100% happy about it.
“Battle scars,” she tells me with a big smile.
It seems to me that a key coaching requirement to training Janey might be to hold her back a bit so that she does not self-combust.
When she channels her energy, she is a laser ready to cut steel. If you want the biggest and the best test of your mettle, Janey is the girl you want to compete against.
Her results are tumbling in.
At the tender age of 18, this grade 12 Merrifield pupil has provincial colours in six different sports — Border Cross Country, Border Surfing, Buffalo City Biathle, EL Lifesaving (winner SA national board race), East London netball and Border water polo.
Janey loves her surfing, netball and lifesaving but right now she is happy to lay it all down for water polo
Having surfed with Janey on multiple occasions, I can tell you that she is an absolute wizard on her pink, white and blue Hurricane lifesaving Malibu board.
If not that, on her Lonnie Buhn surfboard, in today’s photo, she can drop in with style, class and control at Yellows Point and line up a thrilling ride.
Janey loves her surfing, netball and lifesaving but right now she is happy to lay it all down for water polo.
Over the years, she has spent huge amounts of effort on all platforms and finally she has cracked green and gold.
She has a junior Springbok call-up for the Water Polo World Championships on August 16, in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
Goodbye surfing, lifesaving and netball for the next while. HPP — high-performance polo — here we come.
“Life without huge, impossible, insane, far-fetched goals is boring for me,” Janey tells me.
Erstwhile motivation guru Mike Lipkin describes ABHAG — a big, hairy audacious goal, in his books.
I doubt that Janey has read any of Lipkin’s books, but she sure understands the concept.
She is an all-in kind of girl. All or nothing. Burn the boats, as the Vikings would say.
In 2032, Janey will be 24 years old, and it is an Olympic year. The trajectory for her heart, mind and sport is clear. This is where she wants to go.
In the meantime, she is evaluating sport scholarship offers from universities in the US.
An aggregate scholar in the 75% area, with a beyond-stellar sports history; the sun, moon, stars, sky and all in between describe Janey-Heather Wood’s limits. That is to say, no limit.
Merrifield and Buffalo City have reason to feel proud.
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