The Olympic Games are the pinnacle of any athlete’s career. Athletes are based on a working life to reach the global masterpiece. For some, getting to the games is enough, while for Thers, a stage end is something marked from your desire list. They say that the numbers do not lie and if we are going to go with this old saying, it is a fact that some of the seventy nations have I never got to the podium In the history of the games. So, the million dollar question should be why countries invest a lot of money during the four years prior to games.
A nation is not defined by large or small that is for its GDP or population. Here is an interesting fact: Did you know that Bangladesh, the eighth most populated country in the world? has not produced Any Olympic medalist since he was first found in the Games in 1984?
It is not just Bangladesh what is part of these statistics: Monaco also falls in this lot!
So, do we define small nations as those that continue to have a crack in the games but only fall short in the final obstacle with the finish line in sight or those that have a small medal count?
Maybe we should try to examine where they get hungry to move forward just when things seem to be increasingly difficult?
Speaking as one that comes from the so -called narrower nations’, the qualification for the great moment for some of our athletes is a great achievement: I have seen this first hand!
We do as much work work and the big ones or simply more difficult, but worse or several factors, some of which are out of our control as individuals, we obtain the label indiacally from ‘a small nation’.
The probabilities are against us even before the games take the center of the stage. We do not have high performance training facilities and the budget assigned to sports is not only very poorly administered, but also a fall in the ocean. Let’s not forget the level of exposure, many of these athletes who catapult their countries at the top of the medal table arrive through the four years that lead to the Olympic Games by participating in several meetings and rubbing Soulders is in the business. This experience tells at the end of the day.
The United States, Canada and Great Britain may not have to deepen their pockets to send their athletes to some of these competitions, but for many in the developing world, this is a Herculean task.
But, again, you look at Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, the three thesis seems to have identified its forte and give everything when it comes to running long distance, and it was worth it. Sri Lanka, Bután and Nepal, including the rest of Southeast Asia, should choose a sheet of these African countries. However, to achieve this, we need to implement a strict policy on the base development earlier than later.
Perhaps, only maybe if sports such Crickt and Netball in the Olympic Games are introduced, Sri Lanka and India would be a force to take into account every four years!
Gobinath ‘I continue’ Sivarajá
Marketing and Media Manager – Sri Lanka National Olympic Committee
Consultant – Uganda Swimming Federation
Photos courtesy of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka
