Tuesday, August 13, 2024
I was watching this story in the news about China, and its facilities for training future Olympians. They showed this one gym with hundreds of kids, 5 years old and up, swinging from bars, training to become gymnasts; kids in the swimming pools, same age and older, doing the same thing! Why? After all, China is one of the great powers in the world these days. Why do they need to strive for excellence in sports when they already have so much going for them? National pride, that’s why. They, like most countries, instill that national pride in their citizens, because there’s nothing more potent to inspire a nation than national pride. China is not the only country that supports athleticism, most countries do; but the Chinese are more unorthodox in fulfilling their dreams of Olympic and national greatness!
Maybe it’s the weaning off the high that this latest Olympics gave to many of us. Maybe it’s because the publisher and the editor of Amandala have exposed the weakness of our Belizean presence in the wide world of sports, while nations much smaller, especially in the Caribbean, OWN track and field events, Olympics after Olympics! Why?
Don’t we have athletes in the Jewel who are as good, if not better than the rest of the world? Is there some law that says we can’t run, or jump, or swim, faster than the competition? Or do we just have an inferiority complex about sports, especially when the government, and I mean the PUDP governments, don’t give a damn about sports or our national pride. Many reasons have been put forward for this lack of interest, not only lack of, but support for gymnasiums and sports facilities all over the country to encourage physical excellence!
I think it was the Publisher who talked about scholarships to schools in the United States that would help in enhancing the natural skills of some young Belizeans. I totally get that, but I believe we need to do much more. We need teachers and coaches who will recognize the best of the best, and do something about it. Give these kids the chance to compete and excel without financial dependency! Spend some of the money we waste on preventing sharks from eating foreigners, or on official travel by those who need not be on those trips. Lobby the business community to contribute money, real money, as an investment in the development and nurturing of would-be Olympians.
In Belize, the first question those in charge will ask is about money; it’s always about money, while they enrich their personal coffers! What a ting!
It is time, overtime, for the people to demand that we start encouraging and enabling those aspirants of greatness to fulfill their dreams! It is time for us to stop being so selfish and inward- looking, and think of the rewards, and that pride we would feel, to see that Belizean flag waving, and that anthem being played, as our athletes receive that ultimate glory, whether they are nappy- headed or not!
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene, the dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.” — “Elegy” by Thomas Gray
Glen