SOME REASONS AFRICAN ATHLETES PERFORM POORLY

Eugene Iwuamanam

 

Watching many African athletes during international tournaments one wonders why many of our athletes often perform poorly, especially since late nineties and onwards.

Africans are naturally well-built, energetic, resourceful, competitive, and aggressive when it comes to competing for survival, however the question becomes why their athletes are always at the bottom when it comes to international competitions such as Olympics and world cup tournaments.

My mind tells me that since when the head is not at ease, every other member of the body follow suit coupled with the fact that an apple does not fall far from its tree, therefore the problems must not be far from our athletes home countries.

African leaders are often the cause of their athletes poor performances because of their shortsightedness and evident in their ways of doing things.

Firstly, many African leaders walk through their athletes minds and confidence levels with their dirty feet thereby either polluting their minds or demoralizing them ever before they set off to compete with their highly encouraged and well-cared-for rivalries.

I remember when African football (soccer) teams used to be the best; the super and baby eagles, the indomitable Lions of Cameroon, the Mehala of Egypt, the Black star of Ghana, Lions of the atlas of Morocco, and etc.

Those were before the advent of very dirty politics in Africa. Those were days when national squads used to be selected based on individual player's talents and not on the ethnic or geographical area he came from. Selections were not based on quota system regardless how poorly the individual performes.

That time enough funds were duly appropriated for sports and best coaches were hired based on merits and not on the amount of kick-backs sports officials and politicians could get from them. Players were happy to identify with their home countries and also ready to return home for adequate period of training with their team members.

Players were highly encouraged and handsomely rewarded by the government and they were not afraid of loosing their lives to kidnappers or sophisticated robbers with sophisticated weaponry.

Today, as a result of many uncertainties at home, many good players prefer to play for foreign clubs only to come home briefly during international tournaments. Also, many of the players become complicit and uninterested in playing to win, because to them, whether they win or not, they have their foreign clubs to return to after the tournaments.

If the players live at home and are well-cared for by the government, they will know that their backs are on the wall and will not attempt to jeopardize the source of their livelihood or bring shame to their dear home country.   

  
In the western world, sports are big business and athletes are highly regarded and cared for all-year round and not on ad-hoc bases. An American athlete for example could come from any part of the country, and in-fact good performing siblings from the same parents can play as a team without hindrance of any sort, an example is the William sisters, Venus and her sister Serena.

In Nigeria, quota system may not allow such to happen, instead a mediocre player may be preferred to satisfy his or her ethnic group. Also, in western world much as their country wants their athletes to win and win big, they equally realize that every outing may not result in 100% positive outcome, they do not throw their babies with the bathe water when any of their athletes puts in h/her best but fails to meet expected goals, they always have room for retraining, improvement, and retrials.

In Africa, especially Nigeria, once an athlete does not win he is forgotten and even if h/she wins, once his active athletic period is over, he and his family are forgotten for ever.

Where are the likes of Mr Eddie Ndukwu, Dick Tiger Ihetu family, Kill we Nwachukwu, Nwamkpa, Alloy Atuegbu, and the rest of them? Today, ex American athletes like Mohammed Ali, Carl Lewis, Mike Tyson, and others are often remembered and recognized during big national events and that encourages those still on the stage to keep on doing their bests.   

Also in the western world their governments encourage their citizens who show any kind of talent regardless their status in the society. In America, a talented child is spotted, picked up, and brushed up to excellence no matter how poor or rich h/her family may be.

Scholarships and other incentives are made available to any willing child with any kind of talent to bring the best out of h/her. In most African countries, one has to be powerfully connected and willing to grease many palms to be recognized or selected to participate in h/her state or national sports, and this attitude cause many African countries their God-given talented athletes.

If African countries, especially Nigeria wishes to make a difference in the world’s sports and stop bringing shame from time to time to their citizens all over the globe, they must look back to those important steps that make other countries to excel during their international sports outings because one cannot sow a pear and harvest oranges, whatever one sows, that he reaps and there are no ifs or buts about that.

Africa must endeavor to keep dirty politics away from sports to achieve gainful results on the world sports stage. But then, my concern with our high level corruption and dirty feet of our highly placed officials on our progress returns.