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 Ghana's contingent in Rio during the Olympic Games
Ghana's contingent in Rio during the Olympic Games

After Rio, whither Ghana sports (1)

The Rio Olympic Games ended last Saturday night with a spectacular carnival-inspired ceremony and the official handover to 2020 hosts, Tokyo.

The Japanese capital also hosted the 1964 Olympics, the first time the Games went to Asia.

The colourful ceremony, lasting almost three hours, celebrated Brazil’s arts and was held in a wet Maracana, one of the biggest stadia in the world.

“These were a marvelous Olympics, in a marvelous city” said International Olympic Committee chief”, Thomas Bach.

“Over the last 16 days, a united Brazil inspired the world in difficult times for all of us with its irresistible joy for life”, he added. 

Bach officially closed the Games of the 31st Olympiad after 16 days of competition featuring 11, 303 athletes from 206 nations and a refugee team.

The performances

There were many outstanding individual performances. Among the highlights was that of record-breaking Michael Phelps. The United States swimmer took his medal tally to 28 from five Olympics by winning six in Rio, made up of five golds and a silver.

The 31- year old’s efforts helped the US to top the medal table with 121, their most successful “away” Games. 

There was also South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk, 24, who delivered one of the greatest performances of the Games when he broke Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old 400 metre record. He certainly was one of the faces of Rio. 

Usain Bolt 

But none of the two came anywhere near the incredible performance of Jamaica’s Usain Bolt who achieved an unprecedented “treble treble”.

Bolt was certainly the star attraction of the just ended Olympics, winning the 100 and 200 metre sprint gold and anchoring the Jamaican relay team to land the 4x100 metres, three golds in all just as he did in Beijing in 2008 and in London 2012.

As Bolt himself said in his moment of joy, by the feat, he had achieved a legend status and become immortal such as Mohammed Ali who also won the heavy weight boxing title three times and Brazilian Pele who won the World Cup also three times in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

We may not see Bolt in Tokyo in four years’ time but his final Games in Rio confirmed his status as probably the greatest sprinter of all time.

His haul of nine golds is the joint highest among Olympic athletes, putting him equal with the celebrated USA sprinter, Carl Lewis, who also won a total of nine golds and a silver in the sprints and long jump in four Olympics, Los Angeles in 1984, Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. 

The only other athlete to also achieve that feat of nine golds was the Finnish middle distance runner, Paavo Nurmi, nicknamed “the Flying Finn” who during the 1920 (Antwerp), 1924 (Paris) and 1928 (Amsterdam) amassed a total of 12 medals, nine of them gold.

If it comes to the contest for the greatest sprinter of all times, the world can never forget the immortal Jesse Owens of the United States who defied Adolf Hiter’s propaganda of the supremacy of the Aryan race by winning three golds in 100, 220 yards and the sprint relay at the Berlin Games of 1936.

Unfortunately for Owens, as a result of the World War II , no Games took place in 1940 and 1944. By the time of the next Olympics in London in 1948, Owens was past his prime but he remains one of the greatest sprinters of all time. 

Another notable performance at the Rio Games was that of the Somali-born Briton, Mo Farah, who also achieved the “double double” by retaining the 5000 and 10,000 metres title he won in London in 2012.

Mo Farah was the first man to complete the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres double back to back since Finland’s Laise Visen in Munich 72 and Montreal 76.

More spectacular performances

There were also spectacular performances in Rio from British tennis star, Andy Murray, who became the first ever player to defend an Olympic individual title, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson who won the sprint double for the first time since Florence – Griffith Joyner in Seonl in 1980 and China’s Wu Mixhia who became the first diver to win five Olympic golds.

The 2016 Olympic Games may have come to an end but the joy and jubilation is continuing across the world, especially in the nine countries that won their first gold medal.

These were Fiji (rugby seven), Jordan (taekwando), Bahrain (3000 metres steeple chase), Singapore (swimming) and Kosovo (judo).

The rest are Vietnam (air pristol), Tajikstan (hammer), Puerto Rico (tennis) and Cote d’Ivoire (taekwando). In addition, Cote d’Ivoire won a bronze in taekwando while Niger Republic won a silver also in taekwando.

In all, 78 countries appeared on the medals table out of 206 countries that participated in the Rio Games. The USA topped the medals table with 121 medals, made up of 46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze. It was the second successive games and the 17th overall that USA topped the medals table. 

Next on the medals table and second to the USA was great Britain with a total of 67 medals, male up to 27 golds, 23 silver and 17 bronze to be followed at the third position, China with a total of 70 medals 26 gold 18 silver and 26 bronze.

The British won gold medals across more sports than any other nation – 15 – and improved on their medal haul for the fifth consecutive Olympics. It was also the first time that Britain had placed higher than China since the Chinese returned the Olympic Movement in 1984.

Africa won a total of 45 medals, with Kenya being the most successful country from Africa with a total of 13 medals, six gold, six silver and one bronze followed by South Africa with 10 medals, two gold, six silver and two bronze, while Ethiopia was next with one gold, two silver and five bronze.

Unfortunately, the Ghana contingent returned home with no medals. It is one of the poor performances Ghana has been chalking in recent times on the international sporting area. 

The last time Ghana won a medal in the Olympic Games was in Barcelona in 1992 when the Black Meteors took bronze in football.

Infact, Ghana has won a total of four medals, including the one in Barcelona, since she started participating in the Olympics as an independent nation.   

Ghana first won silver in boxing through Clement Quartey in Rome in 1960 in the light welterweight division, followed by a bronze also in boxing through Eddie Blay in Tokyo in 1964 also in the light welterweight division while Prince Amartey again took the bronze in the middle weight division in boxing.

Despite the solitary medals won by Ghana during these games, Ghanaians were proud to be on the medals’ table at least. In Africa and the Commonwealth, Ghana used to be recognised as a great sporting nation.

Many Ghanaians of my generation can never forget the spectacular performance of Ghana at the Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia in 1962 when we won three gold, five silver and one bronze, Kingston Jamaica in 1962 with five gold, two silver and two bronze and Edinburgh, Scotland in 1970 with two gold, three silver and two bronze.

That was the golden age of Ghana sports when premium was placed on sportsmen and women who were motivated to offer their best. Not today when officials feel they are more important than the sportsmen and women whom they treat with contempt. 

Ghana sports can only rise when we go back to the past when sportsmen and women were caught young through inter-collegiate competitions and groomed to compete with sportsmen and women in the security forces before those to represent the country were selected at justify-your-inclusions.

Today, we don’t know how selections are made.

It appears a few athletes are selected not through any competition and sent abroad on scholarships. These are the sportsmen and women who are relied upon for Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

 

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