Award-winning Kolbe to play for Blitzboks at 2020 Olympics?

Cape Town - World Cup-winning Springbok wing Cheslin Kolbe wants to play for the Blitzboks at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The 26-year-old won a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but since then he has set the world alight in 15-man rugby with his club Toulouse and with the Springboks. 

He was honoured by French rugby publication Midi-Olympique at a function on Monday night when he won the World Player of the Year at the newspaper's awards. 

"I want to be a European champion with Toulouse and we can maybe do it this season," he told the publication.

"This is my next goal, with the hope to represent South Africa with the national team at Sevens at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020."

Kolbe also spoke about the World Cup win and what it meant for South Africans back home. 

"We didn't just do this for ourselves ... we did it for every single person in South Africa," he said.

"We did this for them because we knew what our country was going through.

"Where we could give hope and unite our country, that's what we really wanted to do as a group of players and winning the World Cup was something we  could take back to South Africa and show that it was for them."

The 2020 Olympics, meanwhile, get underway on July 24.

- Compiled by Lloyd Burnard

#OscarsMidol | ?? @Cheslin_Kolbe11

Fier d’avoir remporté l’Oscar Monde 2019
Fier d’avoir remporté la #RugbyWorldCup
Et tellement heureux d’avoir apporté tant d’espoir à son pays

Tout ça avec une immense humilité digne des plus grands Champions@StadeToulousain @Springboks pic.twitter.com/0DQfsC4qLU

— Midi Olympique (@midi_olympique) November 18, 2019