The Zimbabwe Independent
10 August 2012
The abysmal showing by the Zimbabwe Olympic team at the games in London should be a cause for concern for all.
That teams as obscure as Kazakhstan, with six gold medals and a bronze under its belt so far, can amass so much silverware and yet Zimbabwe has failed to get a single one is disconcerting at best.
As a nation we have been riding on the coattails of swimmer Kirsty Coventry’s success and now that she is in the twilight of her prolific career, the reality of our pathetic sporting situation is finally dawning.
Coventry has done the nation proud over the years but she cannot single-handedly churn out the medals forever.
Apart from the commendable one-man crusade by Sports Minister David Coltart to revive Zimbabwe’s sporting culture, government does little to nothing to promote sports. Instead, the Zanu PF side of government has threatened to “indigenise†the few remaining decent schools in tandem with their expropriation policy.
Vice-President Joice Mujuru recently lamented the shambolic state of sport which has seen Zimbabwe dispatch the smallest team ever to represent the country at the games. Sadly nothing is likely to be done by government to reverse the trend as populism takes centre stage ahead of common sense.
Bemused fan,
Harare.