JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- For national field hockey captain Craig Jackson, the countdown to the Sydney Games is a painful reminder of his dead Olympic dream and the enduring racial turmoil in South Africa that killed it.

 "We've put so much work into this sport and made a lot of sacrifices," said Jackson, 25. "Olympic competition is the pinnacle for us. Now it's been taken away."

 The National Olympic Committee of South Africa earlier this year excluded the predominantly white men's hockey squad -- the reigning African champions -- from the Sydney Games, igniting a protest that included debate in Parliament.

 But the committee refused to yield. Its president, Sam Ramsamy, said the hockey squad didn't have enough black players to represent South Africa and couldn't erase doubts it would improve on its 10th place finish at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

 "This decision has more to do with politics and prejudice than it does with merit," said Clare Digby, South African Hockey Association president. "This has been a very sorry saga and a serious setback for hockey in South Africa."

 Digby said the team very well could have finished at least ninth in Sydney -- the NOCSA standard for going -- since it has done well against several countries in the 12-team Olympic field.

 Ramsamy insists NOCSA "applied our qualifying standards fairly."

 Ramsamy said two black women -- a sprinter and a weightlifter -- also failed to make the Sydney team after meeting Olympic qualifications but not South African standards.

 "Nobody is making a fuss about them," he said.

 So, while Australia-bound athletes face a pre-Olympic media frenzy and fine-tune their training, dispirited hockey players watch jealously. Instead of preparing to take on the world's best, most are playing city league matches.

 On Aug. 25, Jackson led his team to a 3-1 victory over a local rival to claim the Premier League title in the Johannesburg area. But there were no triumphant yelps, no fists thrust in the air.

 Jackson and three of his club teammates, all members of the recently disbanded national squad, just don't want to be where they now find themselves -- playing weekend matches and roiling with bitterness.

 "I've always felt there was a vendetta against us," said Brad Michalaro, one of at least 10 national team members planning to retire from international play.

 The team's exclusion from the Olympics highlights a stark reality that has bedeviled South African athletes for decades: It is impossible to separate sports from the country's history of racial injustice.

 An international boycott to punish South Africa for its racist policies froze the country out of the Olympics for 32 years until 1992, when apartheid was crumbling and the world wanted to encourage the transition to a multiracial democracy.

 At the 1996 Games, swimmer Penny Heyns -- who would go on to win gold medals in the women's 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events -- drew criticism over a shoulder tattoo of a springbok, a small antelope that was the mascot of South African white teams during apartheid. But that was overshadowed when marathoner Josia Thugwane became the country's first black gold medalist. He dedicated his Atlanta win to then-President Nelson Mandela, the longtime political prisoner who galvanized the anti-apartheid struggle.

 Ramsamy said racism still plagues black athletes who don't have access to quality training and aren't welcome at private clubs.

 "Sometimes it's blatant, sometimes subconscious," Ramsamy said. "It's very devious and it continues to hold back too many people."

 Field hockey here was part of the British colonial heritage, traditionally played mostly in white schools and clubs. But Digby said the hockey association has worked to open up to all races, providing training and money to help non-whites at nine academies nationwide.

 "Sure, there's a long way to go," she said. "I know hockey is perceived to be a sport for the white elite. But we have made significant progress in changing the profile of the younger teams and assisting historically disadvantaged teams and players."

 Eight black players were on the 32-man training squad and Digby said at least three blacks likely would have made the 16-member Olympic squad, up from the one black on the Atlanta team.

 South Africa's women's hockey team, with one black member, will compete in Sydney because it is considered a serious threat internationally, Ramsamy said.

 "These aren't decisions based just on race. We set the standards and said anyone who met them would go to Sydney," he said.

 Justin Rosenberg, one of the black players on the national team, said he doesn't believe in racial quotas in hockey because "this is about having the best team that you can."

 And he said there is one sure way for blacks to be accepted in the sport: Excel at it.

 "I tell them they have to make themselves welcome. If they are good, they will be welcomed," he said.