Fellow Ugandans, medals are not won at Olympics
Sometimes in journalism, it gets boring writing the same thing over and over again especially when explaining a drab situation.
It cannot get boring writing about winning and why individuals or teams keep on succeeding. But it is tedious reasoning out why a team breeds habitual losers. An example of such a case is Uganda at the Olympics.
We are a classic example of a society that is eagerly looking forward to the harvest season when we have sown nothing. It has been the same old script for the country for almost as long as we have participated at the world’s biggest Games.
Teams that win Olympic medals every four years earn them for five, six, seven and in some instances up to 10 years. Behind that podium finish is years of meticulous planning and a sustained investment to match the ambition of making it at the highest level.
If we are to be honest to ourselves, let us consider our input in preparing for, say Rio 2016.
Boxing and athletics are the two sports where we can realistically win medals at the Olympics, and as such I will excuse the swimmers whose expectations in the interim should never go beyond bettering personal and national records against elite competition.
While it is a credit that we finally produced boxers at the Olympics, we cannot say their representation reflected the efforts of the Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) which had been in disarray until Kenneth Kimugu took charge.
Boxing, which should always be viewed as a sport in where we can ably compete with the rest of the world, has been crying for years on end for more funding.
The sport can do with hiring more trainers to nurture less advantaged children, to use boxing as a hope to create a livelihood.
The are no rings, gloves and gum-shields in huge volumes to cater for prospective boxers in the country.
In fact it is not wrong to say boxing has no home. Sharing the national indoor facility with a hundred other games goes to show how it is regarded; it is just one of the so many sports we have and should therefore compete with the rest for prominence.
Boxing’s plight is not very different from athletics.
Same story
Although relative middle and long distance success in the form of Moses Kipsiro, Boniface Kiprop and Stephen Kiprotich in the last 10 years has inspired thousands of kids from Eastern Uganda, we cannot say with authority that we have moved fast to merge that inspiration with world class facilities to harness that talent.
The opportunistic stance of showering medal winners with cash rewards hardly supports the bigger picture of the actual medal making process.
As we await the national high altitude training centre that has taken forever to be constructed, it must be remembered that its existence will be a means and not an end itself.
Our neighbours Kenya have in recent years produced a world class javelin thrower in Julius Yego as well as a host of new athletes in the 400m and 400m hurdles to go along with their famed middle and long distance prowess.
A country of nearly 40 million people, with many able bodied youths but with no employment, is endowed with the best recipe for success – numbers.
The physical gifts of Kiprotich are in part due to his home area and obviously it is unlikely you will get a world marathon champion from Mbarara.
But you may chance upon a javelin thrower or 400m hurdler. Or discus champion, whom you will grow into a global competitor.
What this entails is a corruption-free mass program, funded by the government through the sports ministry to attract children and youth – including the non-school going category – from whom we can sieve the cream to be retained and trained exclusively. It has been done elsewhere and we don’t need to re-invent the wheel.
The results may or may not been seen in four or eight years but once the wheel of such a venture gets rolling and becomes the norm, it will not be long before Uganda starts winning medals.
As it is today, we have no moral right as a country to ask or demand for medals.
Similarly we must not bemoan near-misses. We should applaud our ambassadors in Brazil who have performed out of their skins against better prepared and funded opponents.
**********************
How times change! Not too long ago, the Brazil 2016 Olympics had been written off as a disaster of epic proportions.
It looked like those of us, who flew thousands of miles to cover the Games here were endangering our lives. This was meant to be the worst edition in Olympics history.
But when Usain Bolt endorses the Games, the opinions of millions of western propaganda become less important.
The Games have had glitches. For instance one of the main lifts at the Estadio Olimpico in Engenhao has failed for the entirety of the Games. Journalists have been frustrated moving from the stadium media centre to the fifth floor where the press tribune is.
But should that be the basis to define Rio 2016? Who will remember the lift months down the road anyway?
Brazil, like South Africa, can take pride in having exposed western media as a fraud.
[email protected]
@mnamanya
