Start preparing now for next Olympics

The Olympics are a great platform for building national pride and unity. The recently held Olympics games in Paris, France, have exposed the state of our sport in Zimbabwe.

It has been revealed that we are not taking sporting activities seriously and that there is little the government is doing in terms of uplifting sports in the country.

Zimbabwe managed to send only seven athletes to represent the country.

It is regrettable that some good athletes in Zimbabwe's rural areas, who may possess greater talent, did not go to the Olympics in France due to poverty. As a result, we will fail to leave an indelible mark on the last held Olympics games. We failed to secure any medals, despite the untapped potential of these athletes.

We need to put our house in order if we are to make a mark in the sporting business and compete at international levels.

Every university, from polytechnic to vocational training colleges, must have all sporting disciplines where coaches identify the best talent from them. Regional competitions must be conducted periodically to pick the best candidates and offer them some scholarships.

It is unfortunate that the Zimbabwe government is concentrating much on politics rather than focussing on developing the sports business. Huge country's resources are being channelled to buying cars for campaigning for the next election.

We also need to increase the number of scouters across the country who would be assigned critical duties to scout for raw talent and develop it. We have a lot of talent lying idle in remote and rural areas, but no one is identifying it.

One of the top goalies in the country, Energy Murambadoro, was identified playing football in the remote areas of Gokwe, and if no one had identified him, we would not be knowing about him. It seems we have abandoned the very important aspect of spreading our scouting deep into the rural areas.

These scouters only concentrate in urban areas like Harare, Bulawayo, and Gweru, just to mention a few.

School heads and teachers must play a pivotal role in the identification of such talent and refer them to different scouters.

The Ministry of Sport must not sleep and think that things will work out on their own. There should be a very vibrant team, which must be deployed across each province and be tasked with duties to scout young talent. The scouting system must be monitored, and all the loopholes for corruption should be closed.

The ministry should invest much into these areas with the support of parents as well. There is an abundance of talent in the country that can be nurtured and polished to ultimate success. Zimbabwe can become a hub of sport if we soundly fund and sponsor different sport disciplines.

Email: konileonard606@gmail.com
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