Controversial Namibians

One of the things I love most about watching sports is the commentary — preferably in English, but Afrikaans also slaps. Commentators don’t just fill in gaps of inaction and guide you through a sports event, sometimes they are the best part of a sports event aside from the athletes themselves. A soccer match takes on a different perspective when Peter Drury lends his voice to it, when he narrated the Barcelona versus FC Roma match in the Eufa champions league quarterfinals he painted Costas Manolas as a Greek God who descended from Mount Olympus to the Olympic stadium of Rome to rescue Roma. He mused that it was not meant to happen, that it could not happen, but it was happening. Roma had risen from their ruins. It is still one of the most thrilling pieces of football commentary ever. Only equalled by Ian Darke convincing the world that Stoke City versus Birmingham City is one of the greatest sports clashes in England. Commentary when done right makes a sports event even more memorable. It’s not just words, it’s not just banter, it can influence the perception of the sport and the athletes. How you portray someone is very important in determining how they are perceived.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have provided many highlights. However, I have been offended and slightly disgusted by the commentary during the women’s 200 meter sprint and specifically whenever Beatrice Masilingi and Christine Mboma from Namibia ran. As a Namibian I am used to certain stereotypes about my country and its people, I usually equate these to ignorance. But, the manner in which these stereotypes were reaffirmed at an event where they were supposed to be debunked sickens me. Masilingi and Mboma ran 3 races each in Tokyo breaking the national record and passing it around like it was a baton. Mboma broke the national record 3 times, she also broke the world under 20 record twice on the way to a silver medal finish in the final — Masilingi finished 6th in the final . They both held their own against some of the very best female sprinters in the world at the age of 18, that in itself would provide any commentator with massive banter. But, nope! The commentary on every single one of their races centred around how Masilingi and Mboma are a duo of two ‘controversial’ Namibians who were restricted by World Athletics to the 200 meters because of naturally high testosterone levels. The same story, from the heats, to the semifinals, and the final as well. It’s almost as if we have forgotten what Chimmamanda told us about the danger of a single story, "Say the same thing about a person enough times and that is what they become." The continous portrayal of Masilingi and Mboma by the commentators as controversial irked me even more when contrasted against their description of the USA’s Gabrielle Thomas. Put 'controversial' Namibian, next to "She is so beautiful, she’s like wonder woman.", and you start to understand what is going on here. Whether intentional or not this type of commentary others and vilifies Christine Mboma and negates the fact that she earned her chance to compete on merit — even after she was removed from her preferred event (400 meters). It also creates an image of Gabrielle Thomas as the 'perfect' woman, what happens if she ever errs — pedestals are nice because it makes it easier to incite a fall to grace — we know what US media did to Sha’Carri Richardson. The contrasting portrayals creates a juxtaposition which leaves out the most important thing about these two women — they are both incredibly fast, Thomas is the second fastest woman over 200 meters in history, and Mboma ran the 7th fastest time in history in the 400 meters without looking out of breath — the performance that nudged World Athletics to pull her and Masilingi out of the 400 meters. Add in how they run the same type of race, where they start slow and then accelerate to chase their opponents down to the finish line, and you start to see how Mboma against Thomas is actually the start of the next great sprinting duel in women’s athletics. That is what the commentators should’ve been talking about, not juxtapositioning Thomas’s neurology degree to Mboma’s testosterone levels.

Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi are not controversial at all, as Morgan Campbell wrote in CBC sports opinion section recently, "Mboma and Masilingi have done nothing but exist, excel, and defy expectations. Neither woman is inherently controversial. They’re just fast. The scandal is in how some people choose to react to them." Campell further tears into World Athletics natural testosterone limit restrictions as a gender demarcation, and its classification of female athletes with those levels as DSD (Differences of Sexual Development), "World Athletics' gerrymandering of naturally-occurring testosterone for women in a narrow range of events is highly controversial. The rule is a successful culmination of a long-running campaign to sideline Caster Semenya, the South African 800m star, who recently moved up to the 5 000m. Any number of other 200m runners in Tokyo might have as much natural testosterone as Mboma and Masilingi, but if they don’t run the 400, they’re not subject to screening. Men don’t face that scrutiny, and the rules don’t extend to other hormones, like EPO, that can boost performance but are present in different levels among different people. Critics have assailed the rule as sexist and arbitrary — and it’s both." He then caps it off perfectly with this statement, "If Mboma and Masilingi had grown up in North America, we wouldn’t have this much controversy. We’d just call them prodigies."

What I found most nauseating about constantly hearing the phrase "One of two controversial Namibian athletes restricted to the 200 meters." is this: that shouldn’t even have been the plot of the story, not even a subplot. It took attention away from the real story, the absolute domination of the 200 meters by the imperious Elaine Thompson-Herrah, she dusted perhaps the most competive women’s 200 meter field in years from start to finish. She was unerringly focused, she was graceful — not a hint of showboating, and she was absolutely clutch in the final. This story is best told by a photograph of the finish of the 200 meter women’s olympic final; Thompson Herrah in first place, cheekily putting her tongue out as if to say "I could do this all day." Christine Mboma behind her with her hand raised, perhaps the reality of grabbing her country’s first olympic medal in 5 years finally hitting home (the last since the 2016 Rio Para-Olympic games — first in summer Olympics since 1996), and Gabrielle Thomas gritting her teeth to snatch the bronze from the most decorated 100 meter runner in the history of women’s athletics. It wets the appetite for the next Jamaica versus Namibia versus USA 200 meter sprint battle at the next world championships. That’s if the IOC and World Athletics don’t write Mboma and Masilingi out of the 200 meters they way they wrote them out of the 400 meters, and they way the wrote Caster Semenya out of defending her 800m title.