Willie Smit has signed with Team Katusha Alpecin. Here is the amazing story of South Africa's newest addition to the UCI Pro World Tour. It will inspire you.
Willie Smit has signed with Team Katusha Alpecin. Here is the amazing story of South Africa’s newest addition to the UCI Pro World Tour. It will inspire you. – By André Valentine
Willie Smit grew up with an alcoholic mother who neglected him. He never went to school, and learned to fend for himself, spending large parts of his early childhood with his friends in the townships, as suburban parents in his area refused to let their children befriend him.
But at age 12, child services put him in the custody of his paternal grandparents, and this is when he discovered sport – and cycling. It turned his life around, though he had to overcome some stern challenges in the process, including the Epstein–Barr virus (a type of Herpes), among others.