adminidentification cannot be regarded as an end in itself since the real challenge lies in developing this potential into concrete success at the highest level.
At the Olympic Games in London last year, African athletes won 34 medals compared to the 40 secured in Beijing, China, four years earlier. What can the deficit be attributed to; is it poor planning, misplaced priorities, inadequate preparations, limited funding, tougher/improved opposition, athlete burnout or injuries?
Chances are that a number of factors were at play. For a start, four countries which contributed to the Beijing medal tally could not make it to the podium in London namely Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo and Zimbabwe. The Kenyans, who were the top African performers in Beijing, had to make do with third place behind the resurgent South Africans and the Ethiopians.
Clearly there was a marked decline in performance by several countries although on a positive note Botswana and Gabon propelled themselves onto the medals table for the first time ever with silver medals in athletics and taekwondo respectively. Athletics has continued to yield the biggest number of medals for Africa at the Olympic Games mainly through running events (it is also encouraging that technical events such as hurdles and long/triple jump have made a contribution). In London 24 of the 34 medals were from athletics alone. Of the 76 diplomas awarded to African athletes in London 40 were from athletics and 10 were actually 4th place positions in the finals which could in essence be described as “near misses”.
Swimming has also boosted Africa’s performance at the Olympics even though the medals have only come from South Africa, Tunisia and Zimbabwe in the last decade. Although medals have also come from boxing, canoeing, fencing, rowing (gold in London), taekwondo and wrestling the African medal base remains narrow and the overreliance on medals from athletics should actually be classified as a continental weakness.
Until we are able to present stronger and more balanced delegations at the Games we will struggle to match the other continents which are currently leading the way. For starters, we need to get many more African athletes qualifying directly for the Olympics. We cannot hope to significantly increase our medal tally if we do not develop more athletes across the continent into world beaters.
In London we were represented by 916 athletes, a mere 8.43 percent of all athletes at the Games; talk of losing a race before it even starts!
Most African countries continue to be represented by small delegations and many of the athletes are unable to secure direct qualification because of their level of performance.
The larger African delegations are still dominated by male athletes (20% more males) even though the number of female athletes has grown appreciatively over the years.
More importantly the female athletes have not only held their own on this global platform but have indeed proved to be a good return on investment by winning medals and reaching finals. Good practices in athlete preparation and management will take us and our athletes to the Promised Land; so why not do it?
Robert Mutsauki is the Anoca Technical Director and he is based at the organisation’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.
Online Reporter