Learning to move
- Wits University
6 lessons on how exercise can empower you – and maybe help you find love! – from Prof. Georgia 'Speed Goat' Torres, COO Wits Zylstra Sports Complex.
LESSON 1: FIND YOUR INSPO
It was at Parktown Girls’ High School that Georgia first fell in love with sport. Back then, tennis was her “first love” – she played IX at Parkview Senior – although it was hockey that took her to varsity and provincial level, playing centre-half.
Georgia says that the Physical Education (PE) teachers at her high school inspired her. “Tennis was my first love and that started my interest in physical activity,” she says.
“I had the most amazing PE teachers and role models at Parktown High School. They ignited my passion for physical activity and were the reason I applied for a Bachelor’s in Human Movement Science at Wits. I wanted to teach PE because of my PE teachers.”
Georgia laments the fact that PE isn’t a school subject anymore “For me, this gap left by schools not having PE – this specialist who did physical education and activity promotion – is sad, because that’s where I started.”
On the ball: The Wits Zylstra Sports Complex will house some new, currently relevant degrees: a BHSc Honours in Clinical Exercise Physiology and an MMed in Sports and Exercise Medicine (now a registered medical specialization in South Africa).
Georgia finished high school as Deputy Head Girl and IX hockey captain, matriculating in 1985. As an undergrad, Georgia remained physically active and “got really good” at hockey. She was coached by the Springbok, Liz Chase (1950-2018), and continued to play IX hockey for Wits for a year after completing her undergrad.
LESSON 2: FIND YOUR TRIBE
Georgia’s first job out of varsity was Lifestyle Assessment Manager and later, personal trainer, at Old Ed’s Health & Racket Club. By this time, she was onto her master’s at Wits and moonlighting as a tutor in the Human Movement Science department at Wits.
“Back then the world of personal training was quite big – all about body building, looks – but it made a lot of money. And, doing my master’s in Exercise Physiology meant I got the interesting cases; individuals with disabilities, diabetes, cardiac disease, anybody who was outside the radar of healthy,” she says.
At the gym, Georgia met Luiz, who was training there at the time. “Another Greek, Angelo, who was running the Juicy Lucy there, introduced us,” says Georgia. Luiz presented with a knee injury, which Georgia fixed – which is just as well, since Luiz needed that knee to propose. He and Georgia have been married for 29 years.
On the ball: The Wits Zylstra Sports Complex offers chronic disease exercise rehabilitation programmes, as well as sports injury screening and rehabilitation services.
LESSON 3: STRONGER TOGETHER
But personal training wasn’t what Georgia wanted to do. “Doing my master’s, I always wanted to spread my wings,” she says. Then she met Lou-Ann Rivett, a national triathlete and physiotherapist with a PhD in Scoliosis from Wits.
Lou-Ann had a physiotherapy practice. She designed gym-connected programmes for her patients, where Georgia (spreading her wings) then dispensed overall health management.
At the turn of the century, Ros Howell, former SA women’s hockey captain, was coaching the national team towards the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ros enlisted Lou-Ann for the team’s physiotherapy, and Georgia for strength and conditioning (appropriate, since Georgia is proudly a Greek South African, and the Greeks invented the Olympics!).
“My love for sports science began there,” says Georgia. “Ros would say, ‘I’m not seeing player X run well – fix it!’ and Lou-Ann and I addressed it through integrated work relationships. And we got results.” Indeed, SA’s women’s hockey finished in the top 10 at the 2004 Olympics.
Georgia says, “This is why I’m so hung-up on the Wits Zylstra Sports Complex being an integrated, interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, across sports performance and health span. That, for me, is the beauty of the complex. It must be a team approach. Then we can create magic.”
On the ball: The Wits Zylstra Sports Complex operates as a unique interdisciplinary unit service model implemented within a multi-disciplinary Sports Clinic.
By 2009, Georgia was deeply immersed in academia, having signed up for a PhD. Her doctoral research focused on the optimal exercise load/intensity for exercise programmes for individuals with metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions, including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess waist fat, and abnormal cholesterol levels, that significantly increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
Georgia graduated with her PhD in 2013, was an honorary lecturer at the Centre (now Department) of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (DESMM – then led by Professor Demitri Constantinou), and became a full-time lecturer in the Department in 2018.
“Demitri is one of the most wonderful mentors,” says Georgia. “He let me grow, supported me. I made Senior Lecturer in two years and later became Head of Department. The current Head of School, Professor Hellen Myezwa, has since been an awesome guide and ally in my leadership journey.”
By the end of 2018, Georgia was a fulltime Witsie in Faculty.
LESSON 4: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY
But even elite athletes and healthy, active exercise scientists are human and fallible. Although Georgia had no symptoms, she had been born with a congenital bicuspid aortic valve.
This was discovered during the routine medical checkup that over-50s had to undergo to compete in the Otter Trail.
“I found out in March 2025 and had to have heart surgery in June,” says Georgia. “And literally two minutes after hearing the surgery diagnosis, Prof. Myezwa [then Head of the School of Therapeutic Sciences] called to offer me a 50% time split between Head of Department and being COO of the Wits Zylstra Sports Complex.”
Emotional rollercoasters aside, Georgia’s heart valve issue galvanised her developing cardiac rehabilitation programmes.
Her passion and commitment is, literally, heartfelt.
“There aren’t enough people and places that do cardiac rehabilitation,” she says. “If I was not strong and fit, and exercising, I don’t know if I would have come back as I have.”
On the ball: The Wits Zylstra Sports Complex offers chronic disease exercise rehabilitation programmes, including a cardiac rehabilitation unit.
LESSON 5: EXERCISE IS MEDICINE
Georgia credits her powerful comeback from heart surgery to exercise and community. She retains a few patients with cardiac, diabetic, or long-Covid challenges. All of them have benefited from exercise, not just physically, but mentally too.
“My love for, specifically, the power of exercise is that every time I worked with these individuals, with whatever they had, exercise didn’t just change their health outcomes, it changed their mental health. When they exercised, they were happy! That gripped me. And we’re still discovering the phenomenal effects that exercise has on the brain.”
Social networks also have a lot to do with it. Georgia’s “loud Greek family” includes her husband, Luiz, her Mom and Dad, her sister and brother, and two sons, one of whom is a Witsie; the eldest is a lecturer and busy with a PhD in Mathematical Statistics, and the younger is in high school.
Georgia considers herself lucky to have them, as well as extended family and friends. “During my heart surgery I saw for myself that if you’re active (i) you cope better and (ii) the mental aspect of someone just holding your hand and saying, ‘it’s OK,’ because it’s scary how debilitating it can become.”
Georgia says the lack of support is a “big barrier” to health span, which is why the Wits Zylstra Sports Complex will host sessions led by health coaches.
On the ball: The Department of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine in the Wits Zylstra Sports Complex is designated as a gold-level Exercise is Medicine® On Campus (to date, since 2021).
LESSON 6: CONSISTENCY BEATS IMPACT
Injuries, illness, and setbacks happen to everyone. But whether it’s diabetes, obesity, or a heart condition, the benefits of simply just continuing to turn up for exercise are scientifically undeniable.
When Georgia played hockey, she sustained ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament, a key knee ligament) injuries. Twice. Once in each knee.
“We were trying to get Old Parks back to the premier league and I was chasing a 21-year -old, so I decided I had to stop the ball…” she recalls. “I was always a team player; I don’t like individual sports.”
Georgia played hockey at this level until 2016 but then bowed out. “My mates all stopped playing so it was time to let it go, and I got into trail running,” she says.
She went on to conquer a three-day trail run through the Namaqualand daisies and the Spioenkop Mountain’s Oxpecker Trail Run, earning the nickname ‘Speed Goat.’
“Running did not hurt me as long as I was doing my gym work,” she says.
Since 2024, Georgia is back in the game of team sports: “Through my son’s school (a wonderful parent community), I took up padel, which is my next love. It’s four people, there’s the social element, and my knees aren’t sore. I’ve missed chasing a ball.”
On the ball: The Wits Zylstra Sports Complex provides exercise/training facilities for sport and exercise medicine and high-performance sports, evidence-based clinical exercise testing and tracking, and sports science testing and tracking.