Chronicles of Fly– The Olympics edition

Unless you live under a rock, I am pretty certain that you were captivated and enthralled by the sporting spectacle that was the 30th Olympiad, hosted by those cultured and well behaved brits. I am also sure that most of you now know London intimately by now. Most of you know who Usain Bolt is, how fast Micheal Phelps can swim when chasing after Chad Le Clos, Mo Farrah is british even though he could pass for an Ethiopian and that beauty and elegance can run and damn! Can it run! Just looking at Alyson Felix makes me think naughty thoughts.

Who can forget the opening ceremony, which was pretty much a world geography lesson. Who would have thought that Micronesia existed? Everyone was catered for, women swooned over David Beckham (even I swooned, did you check out the dudes Tuxedo? Twas pure class), James Bond and her majesty the Queen did some espionage (the real Queen, not DJ Zinhle), Rowan Atkinson did his best Mr Bean performance to date, I found out that it was a brit who invented the world wide web. But ultimately I was disappointed because Harry Potter did not blaze into the Olympic stadium on his Nimbus broomstick.

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I watched with Great expectation as events unfolded and my optimism never yielded, even as our athletes fell short in their events. The Closest we got to a medal was Sem Shilimela losing out on a bronze. Many decided to turn against the athletes. Foolishness of the highest order, in my personal opinion it is a typical show of common Namibians lack of patriotism (The same foolishness that had people dragging Maria Nepembe over the coals on twitter for a wee blunder). The men and women who represented Namibia went up against the very best in the world and we should not be ashamed of the result, we should be proud they have the courage to even dare try.

The reality is that Namibia refuses to learn from its previous mistakes, as I have stated on twitter. The countries at the top of the Olympic medal tables spend millions of dollars and invest in the best infrastructure possible so that their athletes can train in the best facilities on earth. The best we have done over the years is panic when our athletes struggle to qualify, the few who do qualify are given limited resources are expected to perform miracles. If Chad le Clos trained since he was eleven so that he can beat the greatest Olympian ever at the age of 20, just imagine what Tjipe Herunga can do in four years time if she is given the same resources? Ask yourself how impressive will Sem Shilimela’s performance’s be in four years time when he is stronger and wiser if he is given the resources.

The fact that Tjipe and Sam are good enough to make the Olympics in their early twenties is an indicator that Athletics Namibia under the leadership of Franck Fredericks has finally learned how to spot and nature talent, with ndelipulilwa hamutumwa as manager we actually have someone qualified and who knows what they are doing in the Athletics set up. But for the cycle to go to completion Namibia’s athletes need their own high performance training centre, improved coaching and funds to compete on the European circuit. It’s the only way because competing against athletes technically better than you makes you just as good as they are once you get over the nerves (I can testify to that).

Instead of wasting money on removing the Reiterdenkmal statue and replacing it with another statue of Sam Nujoma (yes, another one), we should be spending it on giving our young athletes the best we can provide so that they can make money competing against the best just as Frank Fredericks did, although he had the Japanese sports brand Mizuno behind him, I’m sure that Frank can pull a few strings at Mizuno to get Tjipe Herunga and Globine Majova some sponsorships. With all the money we waste so that politicians can fit in their volvo’s and sleep in parliament, I am sure we can spare a few million for a good cause. Otherwise we will have a repeat of the situation a few years ago where two Namibian sprinters traded their Namibian passports in for a South African ones. The leadership of Athletics Namibia is now headed by the right man and is showing promise so there is no excuse, none at all. But most of all I would like to see a little bit more support for not only our athletes but all our sports teams, let’s support them like we support Namibia Breweries.

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