That boy Usain Bolt, he reminds me of my little brothers. You’ve seen him haven’t you, at the Beijing Olympics? Yeah, he’s the quick one, runs 100m and 200m events. At the 100m final he’s broken the record, set by himself, from 9.72 to a staggering 9.69 seconds. How do you run 9.7m per second? Tick, tock, tick, tock, and he’s halfway there… In the 200m final he slashed Michael Johnson's long-standing 1996 record to post 19.30 seconds. Again, 9.7 metres per second.
He listens to his iPod at the track before an event, dances too, and not just a bobbing of the head but a real dance like you do at the club. He looks up, pounds his own chest, pulls on his vest to show us the word “Jamaica” and then his fingers pull up one, one, one. Today he came up close and personal on the camera “I am number one, I am number one!” Human beings get turned off by such behaviour, we think it’s uncouth, disrespectful, we detest it. On some level we are also jealous of it. Maybe some day when his records get broken, when a newer, younger, faster version of himself emerges, Bolt won’t be so cocky. Maybe.
And maybe that guy will be from our very own Mzansi. Eish, don’t laugh. It’s possible. You know Bolt and the man he’s dismantled so ruthlessly Asafa Powell, are from the same neighbourhood in Kingston, Jamaica. It’s a very poor area which can easily be substituted for another area called Katlehong or Meadowlands or Langa. Yet Mzansi has no Olympic champs in the 100m and 200m sprints. Hell, at the moment we are still dizzy from celebrating our only Beijing medal so far, a silver from that tall boy Khotso Mokoena in the long jump. How come? How come there are no Usain Khumalos out there?
The best explanation I could think of was that we have no development at all. None. And today I will refrain from dishing out blame and instead offer a bit of light on the situation. Firstly, money doesn’t buy success. Ask Mamelodi Sundowns. Secondly, determination doesn’t bring success. Thirdly, Father Time is a man who never looks back nor does he ever walk backwards. Never. So if we want a Usain Khumalo to at least appear for the 100m final, we need to realistically think about 2016. In 2012 it will not happen. Bolt has been running this way since he was a junior at school. He ran a time of under 20 seconds for the 200m as a junior, first time that’s ever happened. That was seven years ago and he was still 15 years old.
Development is not a knee-jerk reaction, it’s not a plan B or C, and it’s not a money issue. Funny enough Mzansi has way more money than Kenya or Ethiopia. But on the Olympics medal table, Mzansi ranks 60th while Kenya is 20th and Ethiopia 25th. Even Zimbabwe (30th) is outdoing us at the biggest games meeting in the world. No offence to Zim but y’all know what’s been happening there. I have been saying to someone that we need to expand our repertoire, include sports like weightlifting, judo, water polo, handball etc. Not just for a few but in places where these did not exist before, places like kwaMashu and Botshabelo, in Tzaneen or kaBhokweni. Schools are the leaders here, we need to follow their lead but they must then take the initiative. Obviously government and business leaders must fund this party otherwise come 2016 we’ll still be asking “how did this happen to us”? The value of hard work and sacrifice needs to be engraved into our psyche. Once I had a conversation with a top photographer who happened to be white. He said he was looking for a black “apprentice” so to speak, had found a few potentials but they weren’t willing to do what it takes, which is early mornings, deadlines, late payments, prima donnas etc. Long hours of course and at first, very little pay. That started me thinking about our sports stars, particularly the football okes who leave the country as hot shots but fall on their own swords overseas. It’s not that we are less talented or less capable. We just don’t want to put in the required hours into it.
I know we can do it so let’s be realistic about things, put in the blocks one by one, take the time and Olympic glory will be ours. Promise.
