The unprecedented welcome celebrations for a sports team returning home on 13 August said it all! The Olympic Games Paris 2024, held on 26 July 2024 – 11 August 2024 (the XX111rd Olympiad) have come and gone. It is an event that will for a long time remain etched in our minds as history was made and a nation predictably celebrated. Letsile Tebogo has delivered gold as the first African in 200m at the Olympic Games. He did the same to deliver silver in the 4 x 400m with a team of his colleagues, Kebinatshipi, Ndori and Pesela. This is history and every Motswana has to be proud. Well done Team Botswana. Well done to Botswana Government, Botswana Athletics Association, the Botswana Swimming Association, Botswana National Olympic Committee, Botswana National Sport Commission, sponsors and all other stakeholders. A special word of appreciation to the athletes’ parents and coaches. It was heartwarming to see Batswana united in joy with the blue, black and white Botswana Flag at its most radiant in song, cheer and dance.
As we celebrate the golden era of Botswana Athletics it is prudent that we acknowledge the road travelled in the spirit of Olympism to arrive where we are now. It is only proper that we celebrate all our Olympians who have made a telling contribution to this evolution. We must not lose sight that our first Olympic medal, silver came through Nijel Amos in London in 2012, the same year the Zebras made their maiden appearance at the Africa Cup on Nations finals Gabon & Equatorial Guinee; we also fondly remember the winning of a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 through our strong 4 x 400m relay team.
Our Journey in the Olympic Games started in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games or the XX11th Olympiad. Who can forget that during these games a Botswana athlete, Robert Chideka came last at these games in the 5000m race? A joke was made that Botswana had come first in the race from the back. Robert has gone on to serve as the Secretary General of the BNOC. How the situation was completely reversed in Paris 44 years later.
At the level of government, sport in the early days was not a priority although it was encouraged. Successive Ministries (Ministers, PS’s and all sport staff) played their part and had to address a clarion call from National Sport Associations for a Ministry of Sport detached from Ministry of Labour & Home Affairs which was also at the time housing Botswana Police and Immigration amongst other key government departments. A victory for sport finally came when a re-configured ministry came about with a fully-fledged sport & recreation department. Botswana National Sports Council continued as the arm of government on Sport matters.
The new Ministry was led by Minister Major General Moeng Pheto with Tickey Pule as his Permanent Secretary in 2007. Sport started making some strides forward. In other words, as Olympism was on the rise so was the level of participation of government in matters of sport including a steady rise in budgetary provisions for sport.
His Excellency the President of Botswana Dr Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi made a significant pronouncement at the welcome ceremony for Team Botswana that the preparations for the XXX1Vth Olympiad slated for Los Angeles in the United State of America in 2028 would start immediately. That was a first and it is what the leading countries in the Olympic movement do for every Olympic cycle. Some even plan two cycles in advance. I believe it is also important that we consolidate our gains where the BNOC and the BAA ensure that the entire team that made the Paris games are professionally managed including an investment or business manager and possibly psychotherapists of course as well their coaches at a personal level. We are now competing with top sport personalities across the globe.
Our athletes are young and should not and cannot be left to fend for themselves without professional guidance as they navigate their way in high stake sport. As they focused, which they should, squarely on their game, other aspects of their lives ought to be catered for. An athlete like Letsile has a full 10 years that he potentially has still left in him at the very highest level. It must be a period not only where he wins many medals but also a period where he has to be in a situation where he can prepare for his retirement from professional sport.
Olympism has come off age in Botswana. This is thanks to our pioneering leaders in the sport. The Botswana National Olympic Committee was founded in 1979 and headed by the late Lieutenant General Mompati Merafhe, who was also the inaugural President of the ANOCA Zone Six. He was followed by the late Ismail Bhamjee who in turn was replaced by long term BNOC Secretary General, Negroes Malealea Kgosietsile. Dr. Martin Mokgwathi then took over before handing over to the incumbent President Colonel Botsang Tshenyego who was recently elected as one of the Vice Presidents of the Commonwealth Games Federation. All these men and their respective teams have made telling contributions to the growth of the Olympic Movement in Botswana including ensuring that Botswana participated in all Olympic and most Commonwealth Games since 1980. Put differently they have sustained Olympism in Botswana and it is thanks to them and other key players that we are able to celebrate our very first gold medal for Botswana in 2024.
With the current and laudable level of political support, we could have an even bigger celebration after the Los Angeles games in 2028. As the Olympic Slogan goes, “Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter” / “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”.