By Abdul Tejan-Cole
The Tokyo Olympics is finally over. As expected, the Games were replete with many astonishing performances. However, the continued exodus of talent from the continent struck my mind as I watched the Games. A significant number of African-born athletes did not compete for African nations.
Take the women's 10,000 meters: the podium comprised the superlative Sifan Hassan who won the gold medal and another gold in the 5,000m plus a bronze medal in the 1500 meters. The 28-year-old Hassan competed for the Netherlands. She was born in Adaamaa (formerly Nazareth) in Oromia, Ethiopia. She left Ethiopia as a refugee and arrived in the Netherlands in 2008, aged 15.
Sifan shares Oromia pedigree with the "Taytu" of Ethiopian athletics; Derartu Tulu, the first Ethiopian woman and the first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal; the legendary Dibaba sisters, Tirunesh, who was the first woman to win the 5,000 m and 10,000 m at the World Athletics championship in Finland in 2005, Genzebe, who held the 1500m world record, and Ejegayehu, the eldest, who won the silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Other great Oromo athletes include Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie.
Behind Sifan Hassan in the 10,000 meter was Kalkidan Gezahegne. She won a silver medal competing for Bahrain. Like Hassan, Kalkidan was also originally Ethiopian nationality. Born in Addis Ababa, she won the silver medal in the 1500 meters at the 2008 World Junior Championships and won another junior silver at the 2009 African Junior Athletics Championships. She represented Ethiopia until gaining Bahrain citizenship in 2013. Her silver medal was Bahrain's first in Tokyo and its fourth medal in the history of the Olympiad.
Behind Hassan and Gezahegne was Letesenbet Gidey. The 'only' Ethiopian on the podium. Instead of an Ethiopian clean sweep, only the bronze medal would return to Addis Ababa.
The 10,000m was just one example. In the marathon, there was no way Africa could have lost the race. The superhuman Eliud Kipchoge won the race representing Kenya. But behind him, Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands and Bashir Abdi of Belgium worked well together as a team to ensure that Kenya's Lawrence Cherono was denied a place on the podium. Both Nageeye and Abdi are from Somalia.
The phenomenon of African-born athletes representing other countries is not new and is not limited to athletics. In basketball, the sisters Evelyn and Stephanie Mawuli, born to Ghanaian parents, represented Japan. Cherif Younousse was born and raised in Senegal, and Ahmed Tijan Janko was born in The Gambia, played beach volleyball for Qatar. The list goes on.
For years now, Bahrain and Qatar have had a policy of scouting and offering nationality to talented foreign athletes. The New York Times, in an article titled '(I)n Qatar, the Olympic Team (Like Much Else) Is Mostly Imported' noted that "(I)n Tokyo, Qatar has fielded 16 competitors — 13 men and three women — most of whom were drafted from other countries. They include athletes originally from Mauritania, Egypt, Sudan and Morocco. To represent Qatar, where Arabic names are common, many have shed their original names for competition purposes. But they earn salaries and opportunities that would be impossible in their countries of origin."
What Qatar is doing is purely legal under the rules. For example, the IAAF states on its website that 'if an athlete changes citizenship through marriage, the transfer to the new country is automatic with immediate effect, naturally with the approval of the new country's federation…If, however, the new citizenship is not granted with the marriage, in other words, if the athlete is only in process of acquiring citizenship, competing at such events, for the new country is not possible for three years after the date the athlete last represented the old country at such a competition. Note that with the approval of the "old" and "new" federations plus the IAAF Council, the three years can be reduced to one.' These rules do not apply to athletes under the age of 20 and a genuine, close, credible, and established link to that country or territory must be shown.
The problem with the departure of athletes from the continent is not with the rules. Neither is it with Bahrain, Qatar, or any other country willing to recruit foreign-born athletes. It is with us. We need to improve the way we govern and manage sports and our sports stars. Many of our sports associations are beleaguered by mismanagement and inefficiency. 10 Nigerian athletes were disqualified from the Tokyo Olympics because the Athletics Federation of Nigeria failed to arrange for the athletes to be tested before the Games. In an article in Quartz Africa, Fidelis Gadzama, a silver medalist at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and now a vice president of Nigeria's athletics body, admitted it was the administrators' fault. "Our recklessness led to the exclusion of these athletes. We are responsible."
World Athletics (WA) refused to recognize the result that secured Nigeria's women 4×400 meters relay team qualification for Tokyo over technical errors. As a result of the inefficiency in Tokyo, PUMA, the German multinational corporation that designs and manufactures athletic and casual footwear, terminated its four-year contract with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria worth about N1 billion (US$2.76m).
Politics and discrimination are also part of the problem. There have been accusations that Ethiopia discriminates against athletes from Oromo, the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia. Many have been accused of sympathizing with the Oromo Liberation Front, which seeks to promote self-determination for the Oromo people. There are allegations that top runners have been excluded from major competitions because they are from Oromo.
Corruption is also another problem. Delegations usually have more officials than the number of athletes. Sometimes, athletes are left out, and other 'migrants' are taken in their stead. There is little or no accountability.
Most African countries fail to reward their athletes well. Although Africa has all the natural features, we lack proper and adequate training facilities. We fail to provide the required resources to support these athletes. Athletes' reigns at the top are short-lived, and they have seen other athletes before them end up broke. They do not want to end like them. They seek greener pastures not because they are unpatriotic but because we have failed to care for their welfare. They deserve to seek the best for themselves even at our loss. To avoid losing its talents, Africa needs to get its act together and must act together. It must invest in sports infrastructure, management, education, and reward and motivate its athletes.
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