Effective date: 14 October 2026
Last updated: 14 October 2026
1. The short version
We coach endurance athletes – triathletes, duathletes, runners, cyclists, swimmers and mountain bikers – in South Africa and around the world. To do that well we need some information about you, including information about your health and training. We take that seriously.
In a nutshell:
- We only collect what we need to coach you, sell you plans, answer your questions and (if you want) send you our newsletter.
- Your health and training information is used only for coaching you, and only with your consent.
- We never sell your personal information.
- We use a small number of trusted service providers (such as PayPal, Google, Tally and TrainingPeaks) to run the business. Some of them are outside South Africa.
- You can ask to see, correct or delete your information, and you can unsubscribe from marketing at any time.
The rest of this policy gives you the detail. It is written to meet South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”). Because we coach athletes in many countries, we also explain how we respect the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) where it applies to you.
2. Who we are
MultiSportCoaching is an online endurance coaching business run by Coach Shamus Kruger, who has been coaching athletes since 1993. When this policy says “we”, “us” or “our”, it means MultiSportCoaching. When it says “you”, it means anyone who visits our website, buys from our shop, contacts us, signs up for our newsletter or is coached by us.
For POPIA purposes we are the Responsible Party (under GDPR, the “controller”) for the personal information described in this policy.
- Business / legal name: MULTISPORTCOACHING CO.
- Registration number: 2018-000828371
- Physical address: 44 North Road, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2128, South Africa
- Postal address: 44 North Road, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2128, South Africa
- Website: https://multisportcoaching.co.za
- Email: info@multisportcoaching.co.za
- WhatsApp: +27 68 927 9082
3. Our Information Officer
Our Information Officer is responsible for making sure we comply with POPIA and for dealing with any privacy request or concern you raise.
- Information Officer: Shamus Kruger
- Email: info@multisportcoaching.co.za
- WhatsApp / phone: +27 68 927 9082
- Address: 44 North Road, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2128, South Africa
Our Information Officer is registered with the Information Regulator.
4. What personal information we collect
We collect personal information in three ways: when you give it to us, automatically when you use our website, and from the services we use to coach you.
4.1 Information you give us
| When | What we collect |
|---|
| Contact form, email or WhatsApp | Your name, email address, phone or WhatsApp number (if you share it) and whatever you write in your message. |
| Newsletter sign-up | Your name (if asked) and email address, and a record of when and how you signed up. |
| Free 3-minute assessment and other questionnaires (Tally forms) | Your name, email address and your answers – for example your sport, goals, events, current training, experience, availability and, where you choose to tell us, health-related details such as injuries or fitness level. |
| Buying from our shop (WooCommerce) | Your name, billing address, email address, phone number, what you bought, order history and, if you create one, your account username and password. |
| Coaching | Your date of birth or age, sex, height and weight, sporting history, race goals, training availability, equipment, and the health and fitness information described in section 5. |
Payment card details: we do not see or store your full card or bank details. Payments are processed directly by PayPal. We receive only a confirmation of payment and limited transaction details (for example a transaction ID, amount and the email linked to your PayPal account).
4.2 Information collected automatically
When you visit our website, we and our service providers automatically collect some technical information, such as your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit, how long you stay, the website that referred you and your approximate location (country or city). This is collected through cookies and similar technologies – see section 8.
4.3 Information from third parties
If you are coached by us, we receive training data you share with us through training platforms such as TrainingPeaks, and – through them – from devices and apps you have connected (for example a GPS watch, heart rate monitor, power meter or another fitness app). You control which devices and apps you connect, and you can disconnect them at any time in those apps.
5. Your health and fitness information (special personal information)
Coaching works best when we can see how your body is responding to training. This means we may process:
- heart rate, heart rate variability and resting heart rate;
- training data such as pace, speed, power, distance, duration, cadence, training zones, GPS routes and workout files;
- test results (for example FTP, MAF, CSS, time-trial and swim tests);
- sleep, fatigue, soreness and wellness scores you record;
- injuries, illness, medical conditions, medication or other health details you choose to tell us about, especially where they affect safe training.
Under POPIA, information about your health is special personal information, and under GDPR it is “special category data”. It gets extra protection.
How we handle it:
- We only process it with your consent. Before we start coaching you, we will ask for your express consent to process your health and fitness information for coaching purposes. You give this consent when you complete our onboarding questionnaire. If you sign up for the newsletter or ask a general question, we do not need, and will not ask for, health information.
- We use it only to coach you – to design, monitor and adjust your training, to keep you safe and to track your progress. We do not use it for marketing and we never sell it.
- Only Coach Shamus Kruger has access and processes this information, plus the service providers that store it for us (such as TrainingPeaks), who are bound to keep it confidential and secure.
- You can withdraw your consent at any time by telling us (see section 16). If you do, we will stop processing your health information from that point. Withdrawing does not affect processing that happened before. Please note that without this information we may not be able to keep coaching you safely, and we will talk to you about what that means for your coaching.
- We are not medical professionals. Coaching is not medical advice. If you tell us about a medical condition, we may recommend you see a doctor before continuing; please also see our Disclaimer.
6. Why we use your information, and our legal basis
POPIA (and GDPR) only allow us to process personal information when we have a lawful reason. Here is what we use your information for and why we are allowed to:
| Purpose | Information used | Lawful basis (POPIA s11 / GDPR art 6) |
|---|
| Answering your questions via the contact form, email or WhatsApp | Contact details, your message | Our legitimate interest in responding to you; or taking steps at your request before a contract |
| Processing orders, delivering digital downloads and managing coaching subscriptions | Order, billing and account details | Performing our contract with you |
| Coaching you: planning, monitoring and adjusting your training | Coaching profile, training data, health and fitness information | Performing our contract with you; plus your express consent for health information (POPIA s27(1)(a) / GDPR art 9(2)(a)) |
| Your free assessment and recommending the right coaching option | Assessment answers | Your consent / steps at your request before a contract |
| Sending our newsletter, new plan launches and special offers | Name, email | Your consent (or, for existing customers, our legitimate interest as allowed by POPIA s69 – see section 7) |
| Keeping accounting and tax records | Order and payment records | Complying with the law |
| Running, securing and improving our website, and understanding how it is used | Technical and usage data | Our legitimate interest; and your consent where the law requires it for non-essential cookies |
| Showing adverts on some pages (Google AdSense) | Cookie and device data | Your consent where required (see section 8) |
| Protecting our rights, preventing fraud and resolving disputes | Relevant records | Our legitimate interest; complying with the law |
Where we rely on legitimate interest, we have balanced our interest against your rights, and you can object at any time (see section 12). Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
7. Newsletter and direct marketing
We will only send you marketing emails (our newsletter, new training plans and special offers) if:
- you have signed up and given your consent; or
- you are an existing customer, and the marketing is about our own similar products or services. In that case you were given the chance to opt out when we collected your details, and you can opt out in every message (as allowed by section 69 of POPIA).
Opting out is easy: click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any newsletter, or email info@multisportcoaching.co.za or WhatsApp +27 68 927 9082 and ask us to remove you. We will stop as soon as reasonably possible, and free of charge. You will still receive non-marketing messages related to an order or your coaching.
We do not send marketing via WhatsApp or SMS unless you have specifically agreed to it.
8. Cookies, analytics and advertising
Cookies are small text files that a website stores on your device. Similar technologies include pixels, tags and local storage. We use them for the following:
| Type | What it does | Examples on our site |
|---|
| Strictly necessary | Makes the site work: your shopping cart, checkout, account log-in and security. The site cannot work properly without these, so they don’t need consent. | WordPress and WooCommerce cookies (e.g. cart, session and log-in cookies); PayPal at checkout |
| Functional | Remembers your choices, such as not showing you the same pop-up again. | Elementor pop-up settings; accessibility tool preferences |
| Analytics | Helps us understand how visitors use the site (pages visited, time on site, approximate location), so we can improve it. | Google Analytics (via the GA Google Analytics plugin and Google Site Kit), e.g. the _ga cookies |
| Advertising | Some pages show adverts served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies to show ads, including ads based on your previous visits to this and other websites, and to measure them. | Google AdSense cookies |
| Embedded content | Forms and content embedded from other services may set their own cookies. | Tally forms; links to WhatsApp and Instagram |
We do not currently use a cookie consent banner. By continuing to use our website, you accept the use of cookies as described above. You can control or remove non-essential cookies at any time using the options below.
Your choices:
9. Who we share your information with
We never sell your personal information. We only share it with service providers (called operators under POPIA, or “processors” under GDPR) who help us run the business, and only as much as they need. They may only process your information on our instructions, or – where they act independently (for example PayPal or Meta) – under their own privacy policies.
| Service provider | What they do for us | Where their privacy information is |
|---|
| PayPal | Processes payments for our shop and coaching subscriptions | https://www.paypal.com/za/legalhub/paypal/privacy-full |
| Google (Google Analytics, Site Kit, AdSense, and Google Workspace for business email) | Website analytics, advertising, and business email | https://policies.google.com/privacy |
| Tally (tally.so) | Hosts our online assessment and questionnaire forms | https://tally.so/help/privacy-policy |
| WhatsApp / Meta | Messaging, when you contact us on WhatsApp | https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy |
| TrainingPeaks | Training platform where we deliver plans and review your training data | https://www.trainingpeaks.com/privacy/ |
| Newsletter plugin: “Newsletter” by The Newsletter Team, a WordPress plugin. Subscriber details are stored in our own website database (hosted by Afrihost), not by a third party | Manages the mailing list and sends our newsletter | https://www.thenewsletterplugin.com/ |
| Elementor (Site Mailer) | Sends emails from our website, such as contact form notifications and order emails | https://elementor.com/terms/privacy/ |
| Website host: Afrihost (South Africa) | Hosts our website and its database (including orders, accounts, form submissions and newsletter subscribers) | https://www.afrihost.com/ |
We may also share information:
- if the law requires it, or to respond to a valid request from a court, regulator or law-enforcement authority;
- to protect our rights, property or safety, or that of our athletes or others;
- with a buyer or successor if the business is ever sold or transferred, in which case your information will remain protected by this policy.
10. Sending information outside South Africa
Several of our service providers (including PayPal, Google, Tally, Meta/WhatsApp and TrainingPeaks) store or process information in other countries, such as the United States and countries in the European Union. And if you live outside South Africa, your information will of course travel between your country and ours.
Under section 72 of POPIA, we only transfer personal information outside South Africa where:
- the recipient is subject to a law, binding corporate rules or a binding agreement that gives your information protection substantially similar to POPIA (for example the GDPR, or data protection terms and standard contractual clauses in our providers’ agreements); or
- you consent to the transfer; or
- the transfer is necessary to perform our contract with you (for example, coaching you through TrainingPeaks or processing your PayPal payment).
If you are in the EU or UK, transfers of your information to South Africa and to other countries outside the EU/UK are made on the basis that they are necessary to perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request, or with your explicit consent, and where our providers use standard contractual clauses or similar safeguards approved under the GDPR.
11. How long we keep your information
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it, or as long as the law requires (section 14 of POPIA). In general:
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|
| Contact form, email and WhatsApp enquiries (where you don’t become a client) | Up to 12 months after our last contact |
| Newsletter subscription | Until you unsubscribe; we then keep only a record of your email address and the opt-out so that we don’t email you again |
| Assessment form answers (where you don’t become a client) | Up to 12 months |
| Coaching profile, training and health information | For as long as you are coached by us, then for 2 years in case you return, unless you ask us to delete it sooner |
| Orders, invoices and payment records | At least 5 years, as required by South African tax law |
| Shop account | Until you ask us to close it, or after 3 years of inactivity |
| Website analytics data | Up to 14 months, in line with our Google Analytics retention setting |
When we no longer need information, we delete or destroy it securely, or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you. We may keep anonymised statistics (for example, how many athletes completed a training block).
12. Keeping your information secure
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure and destruction (section 19 of POPIA). These include:
- encrypted (HTTPS) connections on our website;
- payment processing by PayPal, so we never handle your card details;
- strong passwords and access limited to people who need it;
- using reputable service providers with their own security safeguards, and agreements requiring them to keep information confidential and secure;
- keeping our website software up to date, and taking monthly backups of the website using JetBackup.
No system is perfectly secure. If we have reasonable grounds to believe your personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we will notify the Information Regulator and you as soon as reasonably possible, as POPIA requires (section 22).
You can help by keeping your shop account and training platform passwords private.
13. Your rights
Under POPIA you have the right to:
- Be told that your information is being collected, and that it has been accessed by an unauthorised person.
- Access your information: ask whether we hold personal information about you and request a copy of it, and details of who it has been shared with.
- Correct your information if it is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or obtained unlawfully.
- Delete your information where we are no longer allowed to keep it.
- Object to us processing your information on the basis of legitimate interest, and to object at any time to direct marketing.
- Withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent (for example for your health information or the newsletter).
- Not be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing.
- Complain to the Information Regulator (see section 15).
If you are in the EU or UK, you also have the right to:
- Restrict our processing in certain circumstances;
- Data portability: receive the information you gave us in a common, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another provider (much of your training data can also be exported directly from TrainingPeaks);
- Complain to your local data protection authority.
How to use your rights: email info@multisportcoaching.co.za or WhatsApp +27 68 927 9082. You can also use the prescribed POPIA forms (Form 1 to object, Form 2 to request correction or deletion), available on the Information Regulator’s website. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on your request.
We will respond within a reasonable time and, at the latest, within 30 days (or within one month for GDPR requests). We will not charge you to correct or delete your information or to opt out of marketing. For access requests, POPIA allows a prescribed fee in some cases; if one applies we will tell you upfront.
Sometimes the law allows or requires us to refuse a request (for example, we must keep tax records for five years). If so, we will explain why.
14. Children
Our website and services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 without the consent of a parent or legal guardian.
If we coach a junior athlete (under 18), we will only do so with the written consent of a parent or legal guardian, who will act on the child’s behalf in relation to their personal information, including their health and training information.
If you believe a child has given us personal information without that consent, please contact us and we will delete it.
15. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please talk to us first – we would like the chance to put it right. Contact our Information Officer at info@multisportcoaching.co.za.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa):
- Address: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
- POPIA complaints email: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za (using POPIA Form 5)
- Online: the Regulator’s eServices POPIA complaints system, via https://inforegulator.org.za
- General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
- Phone: 010 023 5200 | Toll-free: 0800 017 160
- Website: https://inforegulator.org.za
If you live in the EU or UK, you may also complain to the data protection authority in your country (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office, https://ico.org.uk).
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example when we start using a new service or when the law changes. The latest version will always be on this page, with the effective date at the top. If we make important changes – especially to how we use your health information – we will let our athletes and subscribers know by email and, where the law requires, ask for your consent again.
17. Contact us
Questions about this policy or your personal information? We’re happy to help.
MultiSportCoaching – MULTISPORTCOACHING CO. (Reg. no. 2018-000828371)
Information Officer: Shamus Kruger
Email: info@multisportcoaching.co.za
WhatsApp: +27 68 927 9082
Address: 44 North Road, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2128, South Africa
Office hours: Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 16:00 SAST (GMT+2)