Every four years, the oldest and greatest sporting competition in the world rolls around, and the eyes of the world are on the athletes, and by extension the country that fields those athletes. For Ghana however, attention is pitifully small because the number of our athletes is in the single digits.
Ghana sent, I believe, a grand total of 8 athletes, of which 2 have had to drop out due to medical reasons, bringing the total to 6. Other countries Ghana is economically better than such as Ethiopia, Cameroon and Angola sent in significant Olympic contingents, which is garnering them much media attention from mainstream media centres.
This Olympics would have been a perfect time to really prepare and send in the big guns-the UK is one of the big homes of Ghanaian Diaspora population in the world, as such, we would have shown up in big numbers to support.
The England/Ghana football friendly at Wembley holds the record for being the fastest selling international friendly, with 20,000 Ghanaian supporters, which sold out in 2 weeks. If given the opportunity, I believe the same thing would have happened here.
Even when it comes to the few athletes Ghana sent, the amount of publicity surrounding the athletes is extremely poor-many London-based Ghanaians are unaware there were any Ghanaian athletes, and a reception held for them at the Ghana High Commission a week ago had no fanfare and very few invited guests.
I’m not saying we necessarily have to win medals, that will come with time and effort, but even losing can gain attention-the USA/Nigeria basketball match held few days ago has achieved a record as the most points scored by an Olympic basketball team (USA of course). Nigeria lost badly, but has still gained attention and admiration for fielding an Olympic basketball team.
When it comes to sports, and the Olympics, nearly all publicity is good publicity, and we must certainly take advantage of it for 2016.
What do you think of Ghana’s over all representation at the on-going Olympics?
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I THINK WHAT OUR LOCAL ATHLETES LACK IS ONE THING………………COMMITTMENT. ALL THESE PEOPLE WE SEE WINNING MEDALS HAVE DEVOTED THIER LIVES TO SPORTS, THEY EAT, DRINK, AND SLEEP SPORTS, IT TAKES DISCIPLINED AND SELF DENIAL SOMETIMES TO GET WHERE THEY ARE NOW. UNTIL OUR PEOPLE CHANGE THIER ATTITUDE TOWARDS SPORTS, THEY WILL STILL RETURN HOME “MEDALESS” FOR THE NEXT CENTURY.
@KA NE WU, exactly, I agree 100% and we don’t even have the resources and money to properly train them but I pray and hope it will get better
@tina, youre soo right!
@tina, I totally disagree big tym! All these stars have sponsors, Those here in the US Practice or train 5-10 hours daily! that is a whole days work or job holding. How? because they have sponsors and endorsments that support s them! Ghana needs to invest in ours. there are enough big local and foreign companies in the country. Check on the Spintex Road and u will see. not to talk about Tema and the Nsahwan (hope i got the spelling right) i mean blue skies, and recently KFC. Pls support their efforts and they can concentrate on their training full tym. You don’t think the need the medals as well? The Sports Authority needs to Wake up and work harder as well. When prevate people hold same positions they are always very productive! They need to stop filling their own lup holes!!!
@KA NE WU, so wise bro n vry true to de point too
Loool she is a girl@Constance,
@Constance, eiiiiii sister Aden? Do u want to use this medium to change my sexual orientation?………………lol
@KA NE WU,Hahahaha hahhaa your crazy paaaa
@Dr. Miyagi, lol
I’m watching everyday and I’m not seeing any GHians…. where are they?!?! Are they at the local GH spot in London?!?!? ….. LOL
@Amoah, hahahaha ajeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiii
Do we have the men and women to win laurels? Are we just adding to the numbers because we are a participating country? these are questions we should as the Ghana Olympics Committee Cause we can’t really blame the athletics for it cause to me they don’t get the support they need once these Olympics finish they and up doing what? Nothing but eating Banku, Fufu , Kenkey, Emotuo , Kokonte ,Bayireh, Guinness, Heineken, girls than sleep and snore like pigs I mean we are not different from these Jamaicans or Grenada or Trinidadians do where do we go wrong causer seriously these boys/ girls can’t even bring a dog chain home imaging gold medal since we invested nothing why do we expect medal or medals in return hope they can see the mistakes they are making and make a big change for the 2016 in brazil
@Dr. Miyagi, he’s on de blog again pple…..hehhehehe…tis guy got jokes hun,bt seriously Chris we ve discuss tis alreali and nw all we need is ACTIONS COS WE VE TALK ENOUGH..pple re winning Golds so THE GHANA OLYMPICS COMMITTEE shld wake up n start serious business u knw
@Constance,lol totally agree with you but ont think these GOC will ever wake up and see wt tey doing wrong even the national football team get enough support and attention regret not taking sports not serious when had the chance of making it cause listen to the wrong people
@Dr. Miyagi,they have to put aim at the gold ,gold is made in ghana but they have to bring silver or medal if gold is not possible. kokonte ahahahaha
Hahahahaha LOL I like that @27calibre (O_0 ),
@Dr. Miyagi, well said!
Thanks my dear (ik wacht nog steeds op me verzoek mevr)@KA NE WU,
@Dr. Miyagi, ik ben nog niet terug, je hoor wel van mij
@Dr. Miyagi, You are so right! we reap what we saw! All those wining the laurels training 5-10 hrs daily! they do this a a dail job and ours have to fend for themselve until another Olympic! We need investors and proper sponsors. The Olypic committee needs to generate funds for them to take this full tym. all they do is to chop our monies!
Thank you I like your feedback well done@naadu,
i dont think they prepared to win a medal ,
breaking news 8 cameroon athlete have vanish in london
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9458906/Cameroon-athletes-missing-from-London-2012-Olympics-amid-asylum-fears.html
@27calibre (O_0 ),I orgot to mention that they always ake that opertunity to escape when tournaments are held remember when they played agaianst england there was like almost 17% that return no wonder why so hrd for some Ghanaians bck home to get invitation nowdays
@27calibre (O_0 ),lol if these boys are here 28 than I am 90 years old hahahaha
@Dr. Miyagi,ahaha ,can you imagine you went to olympice game in intention of vanishing ,how can you do well in the games for god sake.
@27calibre (O_0 ),They are just fools hahaha it was never their intention most of them use it as a tool and they always seem to get away look how old these people who are on the run look like
@Dr. Miyagi,you know what you are too funny ooo ahahha ,if you come see how i burst in laughter lol
@27calibre (O_0 ),Hahahaha o’boy serious they probably promise Their wife’s how hard they will be working until they start feeling the cold and hard knockin life
@27calibre (O_0 ), now u c African pple mind? u were send to win Olympic Gold for ya country n u re nw seeking greener pasture over there ooooooo Africa?Will de white man ever take us serious???whn we ourselves aint even serious?How 4 heaven sake cld dey do such a tin?Tats y VISITING VISA is even difficult 2 get these days yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?????????
@Constance,ask again will they take us serious ,these kind of people have money already i wonder why they did that ,this is too bad.
I read your piece with keen interest and personally I don’t agree with you especially on your view that we should be sending more atheles in the next Olympics. The reason is that if we send a load of atheletes over and we don’t win any metal what’s the use?
For me what we should be doing as a nation is to attach seriousness in whatever we decide to do in the name of the Country that would rather advertise the nation more than just sending people out there to come out with nothing. There are some sports like boat racing and others that if we focus on them we can excel and make impact. Every year during ‘Bakatue’ the people of Elmina engaged themslves in boat racing which we call “Regatta”. Why can’t we develop it to the extent that we can take them to the Olympics? What about swimming and the like?
Another area that we have to look at is our schools. We should help the schools to nature sports talents for the nation. Now what we see is that education has been limted to books only. It’s time we put much efforts to develop our sports deciplines and stop paying lip service to them only to disgrace the nation at the long run. Until we see to that our authorities should stop wasting the tax payers money on useless tournaments in the name of participation.
I rest my case.
@KOJO AFRIFA,you have spoken well
@KOJO AFRIFA,Mad respect to you nice one
The problem is Ghana is really bad at promoting. they do not promote things that has to do with entertainment, sports, buisnesses they feel every small thing they do is enough. they dont want to aim verry high. they dont also put theire effort in organizing things well for the country to be acknowledge
@sarah,i like your comments sister girl (:
@sarah,Well done
i think is time for us to protest against the system of sport in Ghana,they cannot only invest huge on only football and leave the rest of the games iddle ,we need to join hands,
and what is killing our sport is bribing and age cheating ,as my brother @ miyagi said he will prefer to be 90 yrs than the so called 28 yrs cameroonian athletes who vanish in a twinkle of an eye
Imagine ghanaian poor performance on this olympic all because there are no support given. Ghanaian all we know is football thats all, even we have best boxers but poor facilities and no support.
You all have spoken well..Another part of why our sport is not succeeding, is the kind of leaders that are elect to take charge of such positions. How in God’s name can you choose an accountant to help grow sport in the country if he knows nothing about it? How can that kind person contribute to the advancement of sport? Sadly that is what we see in our government everyday especially in sport. Even the sport we so much admire and invest in where are they at? Yeah our U23 football team didnt even make it why? because we didn’t have the right person taking charge. So before we even start thinking about forming Olympic team we have to weed all the “crooks” and make sure the right people are in charge. If USA had a farmer taking care of their sport system i dont think they will anywhere they are today. My people we need to start from Zero ooooo na we are behind big time.
@Semi-Cartermatic, well spoken I totally agree with you the question is how can we put an end to all this
@Dr. Miyagi, Whaaat? Start electing younger generations into Govt. We are hightech now. now middle school to post collage old folks who are about to expire! Is not like they to not care, honestly they are lost when in comes to this present generations needs. Look I have a 14 or near 15 yr old son. i can’t help him with a lot of his home work. Why? because the terms and formulas in my days are not current with them , but I’m not ashamed to ask for help. They need to admit their faults and stop spending our monies!!
@naadu,You do make allot off sense can I ask you if your male or female so I know whom. I am dealing with And where are u based
how is Ghana economy better than that of Angola.U better get your facts right. Angola GDP is in hundreds of billions of dolars.
HMM ASEM PAA. i dnt know why we even bothered to come this year cos we are just not even existinf. I think Ghana can do more that this. its a shame