Last night, we all gathered in front of our televisions to witness, what was, in my opinion, the best opening ceremony to a sporting event ever. Danny Boyle’s visually stunning spectacle showed the world that London was ready to welcome the world. The opening ceremony, in less than five hours, managed to silence most of the cynicism which had surrounded the hosts for almost 7 years!
One of the iconic pieces of every Olympic Ceremony is the athlete’s parade. Thousands of athletes proudly march around the stadium with their camera devices, joyfully soaking up the atmosphere. I can imagine Ghanaians at home eagerly anticipating the entrance of our great Olympians. We must have wondered, what trivia will the commentators say about us? Who is carrying our flag? Will they wear a Kente suit? They may even do the Azonto! It all sounded very exciting.
What we witnessed instead was a clip of a man I had never seen or heard of before, waving the Ghana flag for what looked like 5 seconds. All I could hear the BBC commentators say about Ghana was ” Next up is Ghana…and they brought nine athletes”. These were the same commentators who were giving us fun facts about Vanuatu and Aruba. The three independent athletes, who are technically representing themselves, had the cameras on them for so long, they even had cheek to stage the start of a 100 meter race! Maybe we should have given our flag to a supermodel like some of the other smaller countries did. Naturally, some Ghanaians were not happy about this and went onto social networks to proclaim racism. What surprised most was the little time we got on-screen. But really though, did anyone expect otherwise?
Our Olympic pedigree doesn’t particularly scream success. This is Ghana’s 12th participation in the Olympics and have won 4 medals; 3 in boxing. In comparison, Croatia has only been to 6 Olympic games yet the tiny country with a population a fifth the size of Ghana’s have amassed 17 medals. They are also taking 32 athletes (mostly in handball and water polo) to London whiles Ghana is taking 9 athletes, 12 officials and Kofi Nyantakyi – who has been appointed football match commissioner by FIFA. So in terms of sporting stature in the Olympic games, we are in the same bracket as countries like Kyrgyzstan – and I don’t remember seeing them on screen for long either. We should be happy we’re even allowed to compete.
Ghana is a sports mad nation and we are very patriotic when it comes to supporting our sporting stars and teams. However, unlike the 2010 world Cup where there was heightened excitement in Ghana, the Olympics have failed to capture the imaginations of Ghanaians worldwide. No one knows who is representing the country and in what events. In fact none of the Ghanaian athletes competing are household names in Ghana. It is evident that Olympic athletes are not getting the same funding and opportunities as the footballers. Many of the athletes do not have the facilities and equipment to train with and this is having a detrimental effect on the new generation. Out of Ghana’s 9 athletes, 3 are in track and field. Vida Anim, Ignasious Gaisah and Margaret Simpson, all train outside Ghana, and have been representing Ghana for over a decade and there’s no sight of any new blood coming through to take their place.
I remember competing in the 2004 Australian Commonwealth Games, racing next to another athlete. His tracksuit, his spike shoes – I had never seen anything like that before. Instead of concentrating on my race, I was concentrating on him.
No one expects Ghana to suddenly start competing in fencing, rowing or equestrian events. Countries like Jamaica (Sprints) and Cuba (Boxing) have shown you don’t have to compete in a lot of events. You can target a particular event where you have relative success and focus more of your resources on them.
We shouldn’t expect to produce instant podium finishes either. Jamaica only started to dominate sprint events in Beijing 2008 and I don’t believe they got there by putting something in the Caribbean waters. They have produced these world stars simply by spotting the talent and providing them with the right training, support and coaching. Our fastest sprinter Aziz Zakari managed to get to two 100 meter finals at the Olympics but will forever be remembered for “pulling his hamstring” in both finals. It is hard to imagine that there aren’t children in Ghana who can at least run fast. The opportunities and rewards are simply not available for those who choose to run this path.
Ghana has a proud heritage in boxing. We have produced world champions in Azumah Nelson, Ike Quartey and Joshua Clottey. Most of our medal haul in the Olympics have also been in boxing. So you would expect that boxers and boxing in Ghana would receive all the help they need to ultimately win gold for Ghana. But this is far from true. These boxers are training under amateur conditions with amateur equipment and amateur coaches. This then leads to amateur performances on the world stage. All our boxers, will probably be eliminated in the 1st round again just like they did in Beijing. Now you can see why the commentators were struggling to come up with something good to say during our parade.
It is easy to be a pessimist but when you see Kazakhstan, who only started competing in the Olympics in Atlanta 96 have won 10 times more medals than Ghana, you start to wonder if we take sports seriously. Smaller sporting nations have overtaken us in the sports we claim to be good at and I don’t see the trend stopping anytime soon unless the people in charge react. The London 2012 organisation launched an international inspiration programme with the aim of getting children to take part in ‘high-quality and inclusive physical education, sport and play’ Ghana is part of the programme and one hopes that this scheme will help encourage more kids to take part in varied sports. If not, as time goes on, the number of athletes representing Ghana will slowly be reduced to one man holding the flag. This time, the commentators will say, ‘Ghana is at the Olympics, but no one is interested.
