Irvette van Zyl is a South African long-distance runner and women's 50km ultramarathon world record holder. She competed in the marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympics but did not finish the race. She has twice participated in the London Marathon and set her previous best time of 2:31:26 hours there in 2013. In 2021 she improved this time by almost 3 minutes to 2:28:40 at the Xiamen Marathon in Siena, Italy and again in 2022 by more than 2 minutes to 2:26:11 at the Valencia Marathon in Spain.

South Africa competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's eighteenth participation overall and sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics in the post-apartheid era. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) sent a total of 125 athletes to the Games, 67 men and 58 women, to compete in 17 sports. Field hockey and women's football were the only team-based sports in which South Africa were representation at these Olympic Games. There was only a single competitor in archery, BMX cycling, judo, shooting and weightlifting.