African athletes preparing for the Beijing Olympics: At home or away?

Article published on the 2008-08-05 Latest update 2008-08-12 11:20 TU

(Photo : Reuters)

With the Beijing Olympic Games approaching, Daniel Brown looks at where African athletes prepare for the world's greatest sporting event: home or away? How easy is it for these sports starts to stay in touch with their countries? Daniel Brown investigated in Addis Abeba at the African Athletics Championships last May.

Homesickness is one of many factors that Africa's top athletes must confront when they make the decision to move abroad. African sportsmen have to juggle between the familiarity and comforts of home or the demands of the professional circuit and the temptation of better facilities in the west.

The Ethiopian solution is to have elite athletes stay in a long-haul training camp ahead of major events like the Olympics. For Kenya, however, the rich Golden League and Grand Prix season have persuaded several of its top runners to miss out on the training camp in Eldoret.

And then there is the longterm temptation to change nationalities. At the last Olympics, only about 50 per cent of the athletes with African origins actually represented the continent. Observers believe it is the insensitivity of their national federations, poor incentives, lack of development programmes and poor support from governments, that drive them away.

Amine Thiam is a former world champion at 400 metres. She blossomed at the beginning of the decade thanks to her training in the IAAF club that was established in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

"It’s Africa that does not acknowledge our achievements, at least in some countries," she explained in Addis Ababa where she had been invited to be inducted into the African Hall of Fame. "They do not reward their athletes. I’m not talking about everyone, just some individuals. I think it’s a question of jealousy. But that’s a universal flaw. Some sanction you, others reward you. That’s life.”

The Beijing Olympics will once again be a challenge between those who train at home, like the Ethiopian athletes, and the dozens who have chosen emigration as the best solution for top-class performances. Competition begins on 15 August and many will see if Ethiopia can emulate its performance at the World Indoors Athletics Championships in Valencia in March when it finished third in the medals table.