MBABANE: THE Botswana team at the recent summer Olympics in Paris, France returned home laden with prizes. They were celebrated with ecstatic cheers of fans who turned out in thousands to welcome them home as heroes.
When it landed, their plane received a water canon salute while thousands of Batswana packed the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport and many more lined the streets in the African nation’s capital Gaborone, as the athletes paraded on an open top bus to celebrate their historic Olympic experience.
Over 30,000 fans packed the National Stadium to celebrate Tebogo, their country’s first ever Olympic gold medallist. Tebogo, 21, became the first African to win the men’s 200m at the Games, doing so in a continental record of 19.46 seconds, ahead of Team USA’s Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles in Paris on 8 August.
He then returned for silver in the men’s 4x400m relay, winning the country’s fourth-ever Olympic medal.
Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi officially welcomed the champion team and in addition to a flush of prizes including houses and cash, declared a half-day public holiday for the nation to savour the two Olympic medals.
The Kingdom’s Sibusiso Bruno Matsenjwa also returned home, to a familiar modest acknowledgement of “good effort.”
His performance would probably have mattered little. But Botswana has now raised the bar. Though 800 km apart, Botswana and Lesotho are regarded sister states since the British High Commission territories era between 1903 and 1968 when Eswatini gained independence. Until recently, Botswana was an “also ran country” in the same league as the Kingdom. Now with a haul of gold and silver in the vault, Botswana has climbed to the winners’ class.
It would probably be an unfair comparison with Matsenjwa, called “Swazi Bolt.”
Head-to-head with Tebogo, Matsenjwa would not have stood a chance. He was born in 1988 in the last century, and was 36 when he was delegated to raise the Kingdom’s flag in the 100 and 200 metres sprinter category. He has done so for the past 12 years since 2012 when he competed with Usain Bolt, the Jamaican maestro after whom he is named.
Matsenjwa was 15 when Tebogo was born, and 36 when he competed against 21year olds such as Tebogo in a global sprint competition.
It’s a detail that does not escape the minister of sport Bongani Ndzima who has to defend the quirky decisions made by the old horses at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association: “Participation at the Olympics is on merit and if you are the best sprinter in Eswatini and has a profile attesting to that, there is no reason not to participate. It should be noted that we do not have a sprinter that has beaten the 36-year-old’s record at the moment. Moreover, by virtue of being the best sprinter in Eswatini, he was given a universality participation card, thus making him a suitable athlete to partake in the Olympic Games”.
But if all goes to plan, history will not repeat itself under Mr. Nzima’s watch: “We have initiated programmes at Tinkhundla level to scour every part of the country to find athletic talent to groom for the 2028 Olympics. The programme started on 21 September in the Lubombo region”.
“Our aspiration is to also adopt the Botswana model that places athletes on a 6 months high performance training programme so that they are familiar with Olympic standards and do not freeze when they get to the world stage”.
Mr. Nzima is keen to engage the private sector for partnership collaborations to get this programme off the ground.
Jm/today/13.10.2024
