By Siva Parameswaran – World News Editor, The African Gazette
The Olympic curtain has come down in Tokyo and will go up in three years’ time in Paris. The Tokyo games has been a different Olympic from the start to finish. It was a global event sans spectators. Records were broken. New athletes came to spotlight.
Lamont Marcell Jacobs surprised the world by becoming the fastest man on the planet.
African athletes came and returned with joy and disappointment. Africa lost a few medals due to ‘poaching’ of their talented ones by rich nations.
Africa has made the Olympic movement and the sports world proud for more than half a century.
The extraordinary effort of one man made a huge difference. The 1960 Rome Olympics was a starting and turning point.
Bikila’s Saga
Ethiopian great Abebe Bikila, running barefoot, put Africa on the Olympic map forever. In the process, he created a world record in marathon and he beat the clock by close to eight seconds. Such was his prowess that he repeated the feat in Tokyo four years later – the first athlete to claim gold in successive Olympic marathons. Sadly, he didn’t live long to see and cherish the success of his juniors from Africa. Injured in a car accident, he never fully recovered and passed into eternity in 1973.
And, the games came back to Tokyo in 2020 for the second time, went to London for the third time in 2012 and is going to Paris in 2024 for the third time. The world erupts in joy when any participant performs exceedingly well and more so when African or African ethnic athletes excel.
But even 125 years after the advent of the modern Olympics, the event is yet to come to the largest continent on the earth and where the future of the planet lies.
The World of sports will not be the same without Africa and its top-class players. Be it the football leagues in various countries, Olympics, FIFA world cup – name any major international sporting events, Africa or African origin players will be there displaying their exemplary skills and talent.
In Tokyo more than 45 African nations were in the fray. Burkina Faso entered the medal list for the first time when Huges Fabrice Zango clinched the bronze in the men’s triple jump. Olympians from 13 African nations returned home with a haul of 37 medals with Kenya leading the tally at 10. In Rio, the tally was little higher at 45. But the Tokyo Olympics was different.
All their Olympic achievements have been on countries outside Africa, and nothing can match the pride and happiness of performing and winning before a home crowd. That dream remains elusive.
Corruption and inability
So, who decides the host?
The International Olympic committee (IOC) chooses the host city through a continuous and complex process. Each member of the IOC has a vote. More than fifty African countries are members of the IOC which means they have more than 50 votes. But the Olympic is yet to come to the African continent.
African members have failed to collectively bargain and impress the IOC about their ability to host the gala event.
Sadly, no African city has even made a bid to host the Olympic Games so far. African delegates have been accused of bribery and selling their vote rather than voicing for their continent.
As a solace, the Summer Youth Olympics is planned to be held in the Senegalese capital of Dakar in 2026 having been postponed from next year, and that would be first ever Olympic event in Africa. But that seems more like a carrot, rather than awarding a regular summer Olympics to the continent.
IOC President Thomas Bach calls the Dakar Games a “mini-Olympic.’ Africa is home to many successful Olympians. Former Olympians from Africa have been criticised for not voicing strong enough for the games in their continent.
Africa can retaliate as they did in the past but have shown their great respect for the Olympic spirit for more than four decades. The 1976 Montreal Games was boycotted by nearly 30 African nations. The collective solidarity against apartheid proved the African might in the global sporting world.
Do the African nations have the money?
Collectively Yes!
Olympics is a multi-billion dollar business. Hosting it is very complex and complicated. Creating huge infrastructure facilities, hospitality and transport management, technical expertise for the conduct of the games, negotiating broadcast rights and above all ensuring highest level of security are the main issues discussed during the bidding process. But these are not unsurmountable.
FIFA world cup has been staged successfully in South Africa. Regular Copa-Africa is another example. Any number of international meetings and conferences have been held on the African soil.
International sports events have been jointly held earlier. The 2002 FIFA world cup was jointly organised by South Korea and Japan. So, countries have come in the past and can come together in future for hosting global sports.
Olympics need to come to the African soil – the question is how?
Coming together on a common platform for a common cause would be a welcoming step. East Africa and South African nations can make a joint bid supported by other African nations. Countries like Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Ivory Coast could join the initiative. Gambia and Kenya has supported Senegal’s bid to host the Youth Olympics.
A joint bid could be made under the aegis of the African Union. Economically and politically powerful countries for sure would definitely chip in with resources and technical support once serious bidding is made and the games awarded.
Two big things would be a stumbling block – corruption and lack of pan African unity. The second is possible to overcome if a bid for the games in Africa is made. The first is endemic and worrying but a solution has to be found. Sceptics would argue about the financial loss in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. But exceptions are not examples, Africa can and should learn from that exercise.
The earliest Africa could bid for the Olympic Games is 2036 which is a full decade and a half from now. Even 2040 is not far off. A change of heart and change of mind in Africa and IOC is needed. The game of the five rings can’t be denied to Africa.
Would not an African Olympic sound better than London, Paris, Tokyo Olympics?
Let the process for an African Olympic begin now. It has to come and can’t be denied anymore.
Siva Parameswaran – World News Editor of the African Gazette, is a senior international journalist with over three decades of experience in all forms of journalism across diverse subjects. He has travelled widely covering war, elections, sports among others. His writings and Radio/TV programmes have been kept as reference materials world wide including Columbia and Cambridge universities. He teaches journalism and trains civil servants on the use of social media.
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