Sports
South Africa Considers 2020 Olympic Bid
South Africa may have become the first World Cup hosts to be eliminated after the first round but that does not appear to have dampened enthusiasm for the tournament there.
In fact, so buoyed is President Jacob Zuma by the way the event is going, he said on Thursday that the success of the World Cup should be used as the springboard for a bid to host the Olympics in 2020.
“We have got the facilities,” said Zuma. “Those who take decisions have seen how South Africa is. I’m sure we could do it.”
Zuma’s comments are a clear sign that Bafana Bafana’s exit has not diminished in any way the country’s huge pride at staging the tournament.
As one newspaper columnist put it,: “No one has beaten our record as a small nation hosting the biggest World Cup.”
So could a South African city stage the Olympics?
With its stunning location at the foot of Table Mountain, Cape Town would be the obvious candidate. The city bid for the 2004 Games but was well beaten by Athens.
Johannesburg’s Soccer City would also make a magnificent Olympic stadium but altitude would be a factor.
Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium has already got a running track and the city on the Indian Ocean is already talking about a bid.
For the Olympic movement, taking the Games to Africa for the first time would be an even bigger statement than Fifa’s decision to award the World Cup to the continent after a wait of 80 years.
In many ways, the two events are on a similar scale now. However, the Olympic pressure is felt by one city alone whereas a World Cup is spread over a number of host cities.
And while the World Cup involves 64 matches and an intense group phase with three or four matches every day, the Olympic Games involves a far greater logistical challenge, with 26 simultaneous world championships taking place over a much shorter period – just 16 days.
Any potential host city would need a range of world-class facilities, not just one or two football or rugby stadiums. It would also need to accommodate more than 10,000 athletes and the same number of media, with all the strain those figures put on transport and security.
But taking the Olympics to Africa – and realistically South Africa is the only country that could host the Games – would send such a strong message to the continent.
The International Olympic Committee has already shown it is not afraid of making bold decisions, as it demonstrated by taking the summer Games to Beijing in 2008 and to South America for the first time with Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
And IOC President Jacques Rogge said last week that he would love to have a credible African candidate for the next Olympics, namely 2020.
South Africa certainly has the resources and the will to put on the Games – and would do a terrific job if the warmth of the people is anything to go by.
The success of African athletes – particularly in middle and long distance running – makes it even harder to ignore calls to take the Games to this continent.
Should that dream become a reality and England win the right to host the World Cup in 2018, it raises the prospect of just three countries – Britain, Brazil and South Africa – dominating the next decade’s showpiece sporting events.
And that would represent not only a significant change in the sporting landscape but a major geopolitical and sporting shift, too.
Hon Dike who spoke with sports journalists shortly after the flag off the 2024 edition of Chairman’s Football Unity Tournament at Botem Tai in Tai LGA, said the tournament is an annual event to promote peace and unity in Tai as well identify budding talents in the area for global competition.
The opening ceremony of the tournament was more like a carnival was witnessed by huge crowd including prominent indigenes of Ogoni Kingdom, sports lovers and people from all works of life.
The LGA boss revealed that special sports committee will be setup in the area to work out modalities to strengthen sports development in Tai.
He advised the participants in the tournament from various wards in the LGA to play the game by the rules and conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner and use the opportunity to showcase their talents.
Hon Dike further disclosed that his administration will also give priority attention to skills development among the youth to enhance their human capacity and promote enterprise development in the area.
Earlier in his address the Chairman of Tai LGA Football Council, Elder Wisdom Gorgor said the annual football competition has been a unifying factor in Tai LGA that need to be sustained to forge more unity and development in the area.
He urged the participants to see the competition as an opportunity to embrace football as a full career and earn sustainable livelihood.
Elder Gorgor who commended the Chairman of Tai LGA, Hon Dike for his visionary leadership and tremendous development achievements recorded in the LGA under his administration, appealled to the Chairman to build a Mini Sports Stadium in the area to promote sporting activities.
The training was held at the Sani Abacha Stadium Indoor Basketball Court in Kano last Saturday.
According to the Vice President and Head of NBA Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, the event was part of the league’s commitment to growing broader basketball ecosystem in Nigeria and making the game more accessible across the country.
“Our first Jr. NBA clinic in Kano speaks to our commitment to growing the game in Nigeria and creating more opportunities for boys and girls to learn and play the game,” Abudu said.
“Nigeria has a rich basketball history and abundance of talent, which is evident every time you watch an NBA game. We look forward to continuing to engage with basketball stakeholders, business leaders and members of the community to further the game’s reach and impact on young people around the country,” she added.
The 2024 basketball initiative clinics of NBA Nigeria also included the league’s inaugural Jr. NBA elite camp for 150 boys and age-16 girls held at the American International School in Lagos in July.
Others include the NBA’s building of 1,000 courts in Africa over the next decade, Nigeria’s Festival Coins and Salubata named the top two winning businesses at NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator’s inaugural Demo Day in New York City held last September, and the third edition of “NBA Meets Art,” a curated installation celebrating basketball through the lens of Nigerian art and culture as part of West Africa’s premier art fair Art X Lagos, held in November.
Central to this vision is the federation’s investment in capacity building, evident in the just-concluded one-week Level 1 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Coaching Course, which marked a significant milestone for Nigerian badminton.
Held in Abuja, the course brought together 13 young coaches from across Nigeria. The last time such a course was held in the country was in 2017, making this a historic and transformative step.
The training was facilitated by the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) in partnership with the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and conducted by Dr. Ahmed Radah, the BCA Development Manager.
Radah, impressed by the talent he witnessed, praised Nigeria’s potential.
“Nigeria is blessed with immense talent and a strong badminton tradition. I believe this country has what it takes to dominate on the global stage,” he remarked.