"You fought like lions, but you were led by donkeys”

The above quote was made by a German Field Marshal in World War II, Ervin Rommel. I read it somewhere and I found it more than relevant to our sportsmen/women and their administrators but more importantly to the members of the Rwanda National Olympics Committee.

There have been many sports critics that for years have condemned the local Olympians for the continued failure to win an Olympics medal. We’ve heard remarks or comments as "boring”, "never do well”, "careless”, "untalented”, "time and money wasters”, "garbage” etcetera.

To some, both the athletes and their coaches are to blame for Rwanda’s unremitting failure to win an Olympic medal since the first appearance at the Games in 1984. To others, blame must go around to the players, the coaches and the sports administrators.

[Because of space], I’ll focus on the just concluded Beijing Games where again Rwandan competitors, four in total including two athletes and two swimmers botched desolately to stand to challenge let alone come close to it.
I am not surprised about the blame game going around.

Blame everybody, but yourself; has always been the Rwandan thing. Nobody is ready to stand up and take the blame for what happened.

I put the entire blame squarely on the National Olympics Committee administrators. What program have they put in place to assure that our athletes break that [Olympic medal] duck?

Same old story

According to my research, it is the same bleak attitude that continues to cost Rwanda’s medal quest since 1984 and most recently in Beijing.

In the last two Games [Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008], NOC administrators led by the committee head Ignace Beraho became more careless as far as preparing the athletes was concerned because they simply don’t give a damn whether the athletes win a medal or not for as long as they [administrators] are fattening their personal bank accounts on the expense of the poor athletes!

The so-called sports technocrats, for reasons best known to them decided that the athletes do not need enough preparations to give themselves an outside chance to break that medal curse.

They decided to sit, swindle the money meant to prepare the athletes and wait until when it’s virtually too late to put them [athletes] in a better shape, physically and mentally that they started to act as if they really care. Guess what happened? You guessed right.

Reminiscent of the first appearance in 1984 [Los Angels, USA], Rwanda 24 years later was not that lucky because we hardly learn from our past blunders.

Why can’t our sports administrator learn from their mistakes? Why must we wait until the last minute to take our preparations seriously and then look for scapegoats?

In my humble opinion, it is neither the coaches’ faults nor that of the athlete’s that this country has failed to win an Olympic medal. How about the athletes’ welfare?

How do you expect them to perform to the best on near empty stomachs? Train without even the basic necessities like drinking water, transportation from their homes to the training ground? The list is endless…

Could you believe that for the last two Games [Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008], the athletes have been cheated of their participation allowance [$1200 for each athlete] provided by the International Olympics Committee!

Any athlete(s) or anyone else who dare come to speak about that money or any other disgusting goings-on behind the scene is listed on Beraho’s black list for speaking out on the injustice being meted against not only the athletes but the country’s sports in general.

Dieudonne Disi, Gervais Hakizimana, Adolph Rukenkanya, your columnist to mention but just a few have in the past been declared villains by Beraho and his sidekicks because they spoke out for the athletes’ welfare.

With success in sports, most Rwandans can temporarily forget about the ever-increasing prices for the basic commodities, that petroleum prices have gone up, that they can hardly afford a meal for their families.

It is only during the exploits of our sportsmen/women that the country comes together regardless of all the animosity and bad politicians who want to see Rwandans divided. Despite the callous conditions, the athletes always give their best whenever they are called upon to serve.

Most of them recognize that it is an honor to serve their country and they always carry their assignment with purpose.

Here’s a simple query. What are the authorities doing to boost their morale and cheer them up when they are down? Your answer is as good as mine.

Lack of motivation

These athletes deserve whatever they get from the government and even more. Seven hundred dollars ($700) as allowance is surely not enough to motivate the athlete to run his/her heart out against the best challengers in the world, most of whom could be getting ten folds of what their Rwandan opponents got.

It is nothing compared to what the officials allocate themselves and their spouses whom they traveled with for the Games; not to talk of how much the same administrators plunder from the organization coffers.

The athletes must not be denied what is theirs due no matter how small or how big. They should not be begrudged of what belongs to them. They make money the hard way; they put their health on the line to make a living.

Whatever they get is their sweat and blood and they are entitled to it. The officials should not be allowed to short-change them. The moment more people [I mean those who matter] start taking local sports development serious, the better.

The next Olympics Games [London 2012] is four years away, what plan does NOC or the Sports Ministry put in place in form of master plan to make sure that we have a successful outing?

Why not start now to prepare. But my guess is that we never learn from history, and history will continue to repeat itself.

Ehh…, before I forget, what’s going to happen to the money that both NOC and the Sports ministry had staked for each medal won in Beijing? Umm…. But that’s for next week.

And in the words of Field Marshal Ervin Rommel to our poor athlete, "You fought like lions, but you were led by donkeys”

Contact: nku78@yahoo.com