Do you remember the second man to land on the moon? How about the sprinter who was second behind Usain Bolt at the London 2012 Olympics? That’s what I thought. So last year when Christopher Froome came second behind Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France, the world took little notice. This year it all changed when he rode into the history books and became the first African-born cyclist to win the prestigious race in 110 years.
Place yourself on the back of Froome’s bike for a second. It’s the last stretch of one of the toughest cycling races in the world. You’re hemmed in by thousands of cheering fans who watch in awe as you zoom past. Any slight mistake can cost you the race. With one last push, you cross the finish line and are engulfed by the crowd. In the midst of the mobbish crowd you look up and see two familiar faces, fiancé Michelle Cound and former schoolmate Matthew Beckett.
“We were standing in the grandstand waiting for the finish just counting down to the three km mark. The entire last day is a procession and you’re never going to lose the tour on the last day… but until he passes the three km mark you can’t actually breathe that last sigh of relief…  [When he crossed the finish line] I gave him a big hug and had a bit of a cry,” says Beckett with tears in his eyes.
Since the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, which saw him stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life, the controls on the sport have tightened. These days riders carry blood passports and are required to log onto an internet site and state where they are for an hour every day. This allows for random doping tests. If a cyclist misses three tests they are banned from racing for two years. In the 23 days of the tour, Froome was tested 27 times and passed.
It was a cycling career born on the hard roads of Nairobi, Kenya, where a young Froome peddled for fun. Little did he know then that it would lead him to Paris.
Froome left Nairobi at the age of 14 when his parents relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa. He completed high school at the elite St Johns College, where he accelerated his passion for cycling by joining the schools club.  Alan Lion-Cachet, the school’s sports director, remembers Froome as a humble pupil who always had a smile on his face.
“He was spinning in the gym one day and some of his mates came into the gym, showered him with leaves and water, as if egging him on in the Tour de France, and chanted inspirational cries of ‘Go Chris go! You’re leading the TDF [Tour de France],” says Lion-Cachet.
Since 2008, thanks to his British passport, Froome has ridden under British license. In 2010, he joined Team Sky and has become one of their key riders. But things haven’t always been easy.
In 2006, twenty-year-old Froome rode for Kenya at the Road World Championships in Salzburg, Austria.
“He paid for himself to go. He was his own mechanic, own team manager, he was his own everything…” says Beckett.
Minutes into the race Froome crashed into an official, sending both men flying. He got back up, finished the race and learnt one of the greatest lessons in life: If first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and get back on your bike.
In seven years, life has changed beyond recognition. Now he has a manager, support team and his latest win earned him €450,000 ($596,000) and a brand new Jaguar V6 F-Type, worth £67,000 ($103,000).
Froome dedicated his win to his late mother, Jane, who died from cancer in 2008.
In an interview in Britain’s Daily Mail Froome said he hopes his win will inspire.
“I hope it sends a message to a lot of young Africans to inspire them to achieve their dreams even though it may seem very far away. If they want something badly enough then they can find a way to make it happen, as I did,” says Froome.
No one can say what went through Froome’s mind as he crossed the finish line in Paris. Though, you can be sure that film makers have it in mind. Imagine, on a dusty Kenyan road, a young boy peddles his bike, with a small sticker that reads Made in Britain. There is a South African flag on his left handle and a Kenyan flag on his right handle. As he stares out into the warm sunset he says: “One day I’m going to win the Tour de France”. Indeed, I feel an advertisement is in the air.

Kenyan-Born South African-Raised British Claimed

One name was in the head of Cameron van der Burgh amid the lights, screaming and chaos at the poolside—that of his friend, Norwegian world champion swimmer, Alexander Dale Oen. Just a few months before, Dale Oen was altitude training in Arizona, in the States, looking forward to winning gold medals in London. On April 30, the 26-year-old collapsed and died from a rare heart complaint.
“We were friends and I was training to beat him when he died and it almost felt like he left something with me that helped me with my journey. As you can see, at the end of the race there is a picture [of me] pointing to the sky in his honor. It was relief that I was able to achieve what I wanted to do with the help of someone to look after me. I felt I was swimming with him,” says van der Burgh during a visit to FORBES AFRICA in Sandton.
“I would always go fast, so in the second 50 meters, I would fatigue. Alex was always very fast in the second 50 and so was I in this race. I could almost feel maybe this guy was smiling down on me afterwards… When I got home that night I looked at the medal and reflected. It is like you have to study for four years for one final exam, lasting 58 seconds, if you fail you go back to day one. I was very lucky to be on the other end of the scale.”
<div id="attachment_1199" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1199" class="size-medium wp-image-1199" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/149537322_10.jpg.-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />Swimming: 2012 Summer Olympics: South Africa Cameron van der Burgh victorious after winning gold with world record time of 58.46 seconds during Men&#8217;s 100M Breaststroke Final at Aquatics Centre. London, United Kingdom 7/29/2012 CREDIT: Peter Read Miller (Photo by Peter Read Miller /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images) (Set Number: X155279 TK5 R1 F131 )</div>
Van der Burgh, born-and-bred in Pretoria, South Africa, is the grandson of a Karoo farmer and probably one of the most polite and unassuming world champions you will ever meet. You wouldn’t bat an eyelid if you saw him cleaning his dad’s pool in the Pretoria suburbs. He is also a man who believes in home; he turned down offers from Australia to become the first-ever world swimming champion to be trained in Africa. Along with his fellow South African gold medalist, Durban-based swimmer, Chad le Clos, he believes their win could boost swimming in South Africa.
“We have shown the country that swimming is worth investing in. There is a lot of money out there and I am sure the guys in rugby and cricket will be complaining because we will be taking money away from their sports,” he says.
On the face of it, van der Burgh is the consummate narrow-eyed sport professional. Since the age of 11, days when he beat all-comers easily, without training, his cellphone PIN has been 2-0-1-2, his year for the Olympics. By the age of 16, he was losing heart and could have tossed it all away if it hadn’t been for a painful freak accident.
It was the South African national championships in Durban and van der Burgh hadn’t made the finals and was beginning to wonder if he ever would. Instead of tearing through the pool he was out of it and messing around with a mate on the high diving board.
“I jumped once and it was OK, the second time I was wet. There were big banners saying don’t jump off the diving board. I got to the top of the stairs, my foot slipped; I fell three meters onto the tiles and broke my ankle. Boys will be boys,” he says.
“Three months and two operations later I was recovering when I saw all my mates were training away and I wasn’t even able to jump into the water. It was then I decided to push myself further.”
It wasn’t easy. For four years, training began at 8am, with grueling hours in the pool and gym, followed by a massage until 6pm.
“It is a hard life. It is a lonely sport with lots of sacrifices. I do get lonely,” he says.
The fruit of this labor has been crazy days, far from lonely, with people drawn to him like flowers to the sun. On the eve of the semi-final he had to switch off Twitter because 10,000 messages a night were keeping him awake. People have asked him to sign their arms and legs; one man asked him to attend his child’s birthday party. You can be sure more than a few South Africans will name their children Cameron. He was also amused by entering the gold medal club.
“Gold medalists like Phelps are in their own world and they don’t talk to you. I noticed, the day after I won, that they nod to me now,” he says.
The man himself can’t wait to go surfing in Jeffreys Bay, off the east coast of South Africa. He learned how to surf three years ago and says he is very good at paddling.
The future lies in financial management, which van der Burgh is studying through the University of South Africa (UNISA). He has already invested in a company offering accounting services to the mining industry.
In January, he will begin training for the 2016 Olympics, which he is sure will be his last.
“I want to go back and win the medal. So then I have done my job and can haul my togs up. I see it like a gladiator—after you have finished your job you can live and you can be proud,” he says.
Africa will be proud too.

The Golden  Gladiator

With just hours to go, the prevailing mood in Britain was hardly celebratory. On streets washed by rain, the number of tourists in London’s capital seemed below the average for the time of year. The last minute preparations were far from frenzied and all that anyone was certain of was that the opening ceremony involved live sheep.
But then the brutal cynicism that greets every major event in Britain was washed away by an event that left many around the world scratching their heads. The spectacular, which included dancing nurses, engineers, Shakespeare, James Bond and a cameo from the Queen, was a satisfying antidote to the blanket corporate sponsorship that had alienated many Londoners ahead of the games.
<div id="attachment_1187" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1187" class="size-medium wp-image-1187" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/149916643_10-300x203.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="203" />WINDSOR, ENGLAND &#8211; AUGUST 02: Sizwe Ndlovu, John Smith, Matthew Brittain and James Thompson of South Africa celebrate winning the gold medal for the Lightweight Men&#8217;s Four final on on Day 6 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Eton Dorney on August 2, 2012 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)</div>
The ceremony—which saw a celebration of the National Health Service, the industrial revolution and modern day British multiculturalism—combined wit, elegance and a theatricality. It confounded a widespread belief in the country that the event would be an expensive and embarrassing disaster.
A security fiasco, which saw G4S, the lead contractor, admit with weeks to go, that it had not hired enough staff to man the games, saw the army drafted in to run X-ray scanners and patrol the venues. Last minute problems on some of the major routes into London raised fears of transport chaos, but, though the infrastructure creaked under the weight of the additional hundreds of thousands of users, it held—just.
Even the weather, which had appeared apocalyptic, from March through to July, turned. The ceaseless rain gave way to fierce sunshine as summer smiled—although the hailstorms did return to add spice to the cycling road race.
The early stages were not encouraging for African teams. Nigerian slalom kayak hopeful, Johny Akinyemi, fell at the first hurdle, accumulating too many penalties in his two runs in the K1 event and failing to reach the semi-finals.
The Nigerian basketball team, which qualified at the eleventh hour for their first appearance at an Olympic Games, showed some promise, but came up against a rampant USA ‘Dream Team’, who notched up an Olympic record winning spread of 156-73. One of the country’s two individual medalists from the Beijing Olympics in 2008—Chika Chukwumerije—had to wait until close to the end of the event to try to better his bronze in the +80kg Taekwondo.
<div id="attachment_1185" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1185" class="size-medium wp-image-1185" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/150115672_10-300x214.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="214" />LONDON, ENGLAND &#8211; AUGUST 10: Meseret Defar of Ethiopia celebrates as she crosses the finish line ahead of Jepkemoi Jepkemoi Cheruiyot of Kenya and Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia celebrates winning gold in the Women&#8217;s 5000m Final on Day 14 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 10, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)</div>
Not that it mattered—London’s large Nigerian community has been vocal in its support of its team. A three day conference saw ministers and some of the country’s leading businesspeople gather in the Dorchester Hotel, while around town other delegations turned up to show off their country’s investment opportunities.
Juliano Máquina, Mozambique’s light-flyweight boxing hopeful, was soundly beaten by a clinical Aleksandar Aleksandrov, the Bulgarian took apart the Olympic debutant over the three rounds to win on points 22-7. Thomas Essomba, from Cameroon, the other African fancied in the weight category, put in a solid first round win, but failed to make the quarter finals, beaten by the Northern Irishman Paddy Barnes.
South Africa picked up some early successes in and on the water. The South African men’s lightweight four picked up a gold in the rowing, while Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos were the surprise winners in the 100m breaststroke and the 200m butterfly, respectively. The latter, saw le Clos beat the world’s best—the American, Michael Phelps—by a fingernail, and made a hero of his father, Burt le Clos, whose hoarse and emotional post-swim interview with BBC quickly went viral.
As the first week drew to a close, it was only South Africans who had made it to the podium.
Hopes were boosted when the Kenyans arrived. With three Olympic champions—Pamela Jelimo, Brimin Kipruto and Asbel Kiprop—and four world champions—Vivian Cheruiyot, Ezekiel Kemboi, Edna Kiplagat and captain David Rudisha—named in their squad for the London games, there was no doubt the East Africans had come to win. Rudisha, an 800m runner, was set to follow in the footsteps of his father by participating in the 4x400m relay—the team’s pedigree crossed generations. In Beijing, Kenya was the highest ranking African country in the medal tables, taking six golds and 14 medals overall.
This time, they rejected the offer of a training base in Bristol, to the west of London, preferring to remain in Kenya to train at altitude right up to the last minute.
<div id="attachment_1189" style="width: 215px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1189" class="size-medium wp-image-1189" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/149585173_10-205x300.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="300" />LONDON, ENGLAND &#8211; JULY 31: Chad le Clos of South Africa celebrates after winning the gold in the Men&#8217;s 200m Butterfly final on Day 4 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre on July 31, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)</div>
Cheruiyot was the first in action, taking on a strong field, including the Ethiopian Olympic champion, Tirunesh Dibaba, in the 10,000m final. In the end, it was the Ethiopian’s day, kicking ahead to win gold, with Cheruiyot trailing in third behind her compatriot Sally Kipyego.
It was the Ethiopians again who denied Kenya in the women’s marathon; Tiki Gelana beat Priscah Jeptoo by five seconds to claim gold in the thrashing rain.
The highly fancied men’s team fared even worse in the 10,000m. On home turf, the British runner, Mo Farah, took gold ahead of the American Galen Rupp and Ethiopia’s Tariku Bekele, with the Kenyans trailing outside of the medal positions. It was the first time since 1984 that an African runner had not won the event—although some were quick to claim Mogadishu-born Farah for the continent. In a rather ugly series of attacks in the run-up to the games, the right-wing press had railed against Britain’s foreign-born competitors using the epithet “plastic Brits”. Farah’s response was definitive. Having taken gold, a journalist asked him whether he would have preferred to have won the medal for Somalia.
“Look, mate,” Farah replied, “This is my country.”
The Kenyans had to wait until Sunday afternoon to finally break their duck, Ezekiel Kemboi, a policeman facing an assault charge back in his home country, stormed ahead in the last lap of the 3,000m steeplechase, after his compatriot, Brimin Kipruto, had fallen. At the end of the race, Kemboi announced that he would retire from the discipline to focus on the marathon.
Amongst the running contingent was Guor Marial, whose story captured the imagination of many in the international media in the run up to the games. Marial was one of four competitors who joined the parade of athletes underneath the Olympic flag. Three—Churandy Martina, Philip Elhage and Rodion Davelaar—are previous competitors from the Netherlands Antilles, which recently became a municipality of the Netherlands.
<div id="attachment_1188" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1188" class="size-medium wp-image-1188" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/149771045_10-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />LONDON, ENGLAND &#8211; AUGUST 03: Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia celebrates winning gold in the Women&#8217;s 10,000m Final on Day 7 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 3, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)</div>
Marial, in his first Olympics, was born in South Sudan, and turned down an offer from Khartoum to run for the north. Granted refugee status by the US when he was 16, the marathon runner lost many of his relatives in the vicious civil war that saw millions displaced. With South Sudan newly independent and lacking an organizing committee, the decision by officials to allow Marial a spot marks the first time an athlete from Africa’s 54th nation has been able to compete.
While stories like that of Marial have provided great examples of the redemptive power of sport, the event continues to raise questions about the ability of athletes from the continent to be able to make their mark. While the raw talent and commitment of African competitors has seen them dominate a few important sports in recent decades, the London games more than any other may have shown that top-level sport is becoming so clearly bifurcated between the haves and the have-nots. The dominance of the US and China in the medal tables showed that financial clout can be the difference between a victor and an also-ran.
The press fell in love with the stories of hardship and graft of willing amateurs like Hamadou Djibo Issaka, the rower from Niger who took up the sport only months before the games. He worked as a gardener and swimming pool attendant in Niamey and trained in an old fishing boat. The 35-year-old finished a distant last in the single sculls. While narratives like his provide great examples of the vaunted “Olympic Spirit”, they also highlight the vast discrepancies in resources. British rowers, who had one of their best years at home, are the product of a well-established network of training facilities, coaches, equipment and finance.
In the end, African hopes fell in the most part to domestic competitors, as British athletes, fired up by the support in London, won through in events that would normally be dominated by the continent’s finest.
Although much noise was made around the ‘Africa Village’ hospitality area about a potential bid by Durban for 2024, with no African countries on the shortlist for 2020, it will be more than a decade before anyone on the continent will be able to claim that home advantage.
<div id="attachment_1186" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1186" class="size-medium wp-image-1186" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/149948438_10.jpg.-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Track &amp; Field: 2012 Summer Olympics: Kenya Ezekiel Kemboi victorious after winning Men&#8217;s 3000M Steeplechase Final gold at Olympic Stadium. London, United Kingdom 8/5/2012 CREDIT: John W. McDonough (Photo by John W. McDonough /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images) (Set Number: X155268 TK11 R1 F174 )</div>
Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga, threw his country’s hat into the ring for a bid, reminding press that the country is not only home to some of the world’s greatest runners, elite athletes already flock to the high altitude training centres in Iten, in the Rift Valley. However, major international investment—and a change in international perceptions of the country, and the continent more broadly—would be needed for that bid to take off. It is unlikely to have been enhanced by the closure of the ‘Africa Village’ early due to unpaid debts, caused by the failure of many African Olympic committees to turn up and take out space.

From African Grit  To Plastic Brits

The gun cracked. The runner shot forward. Her breathing was normal. She soon found her rhythm as they hit the first bend. The group at the front was bunched. The woman in green and gold held steady. As they neared the 400-meter mark, she could feel the Kenyan, Janeth Jepkosgei, breathing down her neck. As the bell went for the last lap, she increased the pace but the Kenyan went with her. That’s when it happened. Two hundred meters to go; it was like a second gun exploded. Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya surged forward with her long, powerful strides as she tore away from the field to win her first world 800-meter title in a remarkable time of 1:55.45—a glorious victory.
It was the 800-meter women’s final at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin, and Semenya had just become the first South African to win the event.
The world was at her feet. Then the gender controversy began. Suddenly, Semenya was known for her deep voice and muscular build, not normally associated with a teenage girl, rather than her running. She was subjected to a long and public gender verification saga by world athletics. People argued over her case; petty politicians used her as a political football. Semenya was withdrawn from competition until July 2010, before she was cleared to run again—a long and painful exclusion. Many would have given up—she could have, but she refused.
<div id="attachment_806" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-806" class="size-large wp-image-806" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/124075220_10-685x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="709" />FRANCE &#8211; AUGUST 26: The 9th Athletics world championships in St Denis In Paris, France On August 26, 2003 &#8211; Maria Mutola (Moz) wins gold medal in the 800 meters. (Photo by Pool BASSIGNAC/DUCLOS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)</div>
Semenya came back to defend her title in 2011 in Daegu, South Korea, and was beaten narrowly in the final straight as she came in with a time of 1:56.35—a commendable performance, considering the events leading up to the race. Now Semenya plans to go one step further—she wants gold at the Olympic Games in London.
The odds, for the first time, are stacked in her favor. Since her win in Berlin almost three years ago, she has been in contact with former Olympic Gold medallist in the 800-meters at the 2000 games, Mozambican Maria Mutola.
No stranger to gender controversy herself, although all was proved unwarranted, the 39-year-old Mutola recently replaced Semenya’s coach, Michael Seme, at the end of last year. Legend has it that Mutola was caught masquerading as a man when she played in a football cup final back home in Maputo. Amid the furore, a coach spotted her running talent and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mutola dominated the two-lap race during the 1990s and into the next century. During this time, she became a seven-time world indoor gold medallist and she also added three world 800 meters gold medals to her tally.
Mutola and Semenya make a powerful team gunning for gold in July. Mutola trains the now 21-year-old prodigy in Pretoria, north of Johannesburg.
“Me and Caster have been talking since she won the World Championships in Berlin, so we’ve been in contact ever since,” she pauses with a glint of pride in her eye.
“Any time she needed advice, she would call me and then we would talk a little bit. It’s been a long-term relationship. I’ve known Caster since then, it just fell into place, so it wasn’t anything strange when she approached me and asked if I would train her.”
Since then, the duo have been specific in their targets, and Semenya recently ran her second Olympic qualifying time at a Yellow Pages Meeting in Pretoria on April 21, guaranteeing her place at the Olympics showpiece.
She ran 1:59.58 and in so doing, at high-altitude, became the first South African woman to run under two minutes on home soil in 21 years.
Now Mutola has her sights firmly set on the top honor: the Olympic gold.
“[I think] very good advice is to be in shape, to stay healthy and go to London in shape, to be able to win it.
“[Judging from] all the Olympics I have been through, it is going to take under two minutes to be able to win it. You have to produce 1:55/1:56 to be able to win the race because everyone is training for the same event—to be an Olympic champion.”
Now Semenya heads overseas to begin her final preparations by competing in Europe.
“The most important thing is to have confidence in oneself going to these European track meets. You have to be able to win over there, run good times and go to the Olympics with a lot of confidence. That is a very important thing for athletes.”
Semenya was expected to qualify sooner for the showpiece, but now that she has run the time, everything is back on track, according to Mutola as she alluded again to the gold medal.
“In terms of her preparations, I have to say it is going very well at the moment, I was a bit concerned at the beginning but I see that we are improving, we are doing the right thing. Everything is going well at the moment.
“The most important thing is for her to stay in shape and believe in herself. When she gets to the Olympic Games, anybody who qualifies for the finals has a chance of winning gold.”
Mutola believes Semenya could be the best ever. She says the world record set in 1983 by Czech runner Jarmila Kratochvílová looks set to tumble if Semenya stays on course. “I always thought she would be the one to break the world record because when she was 18, she was running 1:55’s and I think when she is about 25, and more mature, she would probably break the world record.
“If you are 18 and run a 1:55, that means that if you are 20-something, you would be able to run between 1:52 and 1:53 and that indication I see in Caster. I hope and I know she can be the one to break that world record that has been standing for a very long time.”
One thing is for sure: with the troubles of her past behind her, the Mutola-Semenya southern African team will be the hot favorite come the end of July. The history books await.

African Power Sisters  Strive For Gold

For eight months, Equatorial Guinea’s Eric Moussambani trained in the only swimming pool he could find. The hotel pool in Malabo was 20 meters long and had no lane markers. He did not meet the qualifying standards for the Olympic Games.
But Moussambani was invited to be part of the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 through a wildcard program. It was started to allow athletes from poor countries a chance to compete.
Moussambani had never swum a distance of more than 50 meters and had never even seen a pool that long. A race of 100 meters was a tough ask for the then 22-year-old. He completed the distance in 1:52:72, more than twice the time it took all the other swimmers to finish.
<div id="attachment_799" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-799" class="size-large wp-image-799" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/57122822_10-1024x670.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="310" />MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA &#8211; MARCH 18: Edwin Ekiring of Uganda plays a shot during his badminton at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre during day three of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games March 18, 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)</div>
Moussambani, who became known as Eric the Eel, won hearts that day as the crowd cheered him to the finish, no matter how long it took.
Today, his story is only remembered for its novelty value, but it carries a deeper meaning. It illustrates a problem that has plagued Africa for as long as it has competed in the Olympic Games—under-achievement. Poor facilities and lack of funds are cited as the main reasons for the scarcity of medals and those two triggers have more intricate undertones. Olympic sports can be elitist and require specialized equipment and coaching, which are not always available in countries struggling to provide for their people.
Every four years, Africa sends a proud, hopeful contingent to the Olympic Games, which the continent is yet to host. Although they often return with little gold, sometimes a success story shines through the clouds. London 2012 could bring more of these rays of hope. Most of them are expected to be in the track and field events where Africa is strong, or in the pool, the ring and a few unlikely places.
Kenya, South Africa and Egypt are Africa’s three most successful teams, with 22, 20 and 10 gold medals respectively, thanks to their runners, swimmers and weight-lifters. Algeria excels at boxing and athletics, where the teams have won all four of their medals. Eritrea is known for its runners and Mali for its footballers, who made it to the semi-finals of the African Nations’ Cup earlier this year.
The running track is still likely to be the key to success for Kenya, but South Africa can rely on an array of sports, including women’s football and hockey teams and a BMX rider, Sifiso Nhlapo.
Egypt will bank on judo, archery and handball and has a team of synchronized swimmers. Algeria has high hopes for its judo pair, Soraya Haddad and Amar Benikhlef.
<div id="attachment_802" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-802" class="size-large wp-image-802" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/84051727_10-732x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="663" />BEIJING &#8211; AUGUST 22: Wania Monteiro of Cape Verde competes in the individual all-around qualification of the rhythmic gymnastics at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on August 22, 2008. in Beijing, China.(Photo by Bob Thomas/Getty Images)</div>
For the first time, Eritrea has entered a non-runner in the Olympics. Daniel Teklehaimanot has qualified in the men’s road race cycling event, while Mali will be looking for medals in taekwondo, with double champion Daba Modibo Keïta part of the team.
Sport is enriched by the personalities who take part, and the African medal hopefuls have plenty of characters among them. Take Botswana’s Amantle Montsho for a start. When she was 12 years old, her grandfather told her she ran like a boy, but her father allowed her to stick to her running style. She is now the reigning 400-meter world champion and could secure Botswana’s first Olympic medal.
Triumph over adversity is also theme of South Africa’s 800-meter champion, Caster Semenya, who was subjected to a series of gender tests after her victory at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009. She was toppled, faced the possibility of never competing again and was humiliated. Now she has bounced back to qualify for London Olympics, with a point to prove.
Wania Monteiro is Cape Verde’s rhythmic gymnast, an unusual category for an African athlete. She was the country’s flagbearer in Beijing. Benjamin Boukpeti is the holder of Togo’s only Olympic medal—a bronze in the slalom canoe K-1 class.
Angola’s basketball team is the top ranked team in Africa.
Molla Getachew is the only member of Ethiopia’s team who is not a runner. He is a fly-weight boxer and does not even own his own pair of gloves, but will compete using borrowed ones from the gym. Malawi will have a 14-year-old swimmer, Zarra Pinto, while the Ugandans have the continent’s best badminton player in their ranks, Edwin Ekiring.
Somalia is only able to send two athletes: one male, one female, both runners. Abdinasir Saeed and Samiyo Yusuf hope their courage at the games can repair their country’s war-damaged image.
<div id="attachment_803" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-803" class="size-large wp-image-803" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/122834516_10-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA &#8211; AUGUST 29: Amantle Montsho of Botswana celebrates with her country&#8217;s flag after winning the women&#8217;s 400 metres final during day three of the 13th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Daegu Stadium on August 29, 2011 in Daegu, South Korea. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)</div>
Moussambani made records for all the wrong reasons in 2000, but there are some African athletes looking to write their names in Olympic history in London. Some of them are searching for milestones of endurance. Angolan long-distance runner Joäo N’Tyamba is hoping to become the first male athlete to compete in seven Olympic Games.
Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry will aim to win her third 200-meter backstroke after she successfully defended her title in Beijing, an achievement that saw many Zimbabwean babies christened ‘Goldmedal’ in her honor.
Then there are the achievements that represent personal growth. Brimin Kipruto, Kenya’s 3,000-meter steeplechase runner, completed the distance in the second fastest time ever, something he will want to better. Keninisa Bekelel holds the world record and Olympic record for both the 5,000 and 10,000-meter events. He too will want to better this by living up to the mantra of top athletes: I am my own biggest competitor.

Go Africa!

Angola’s female basketball warriors are pretty pleased with themselves right now in a country mad about the sport. They came back from a thrashing from favourites, Senegal, to take gold at the 2011 Afrobasket Women in Mali; they were feted by President José Eduardo dos Santos and the Minister of Sport, Goncalves Muandumba, on their triumphant return to Luanda and now they have a shot, alongside the men, for a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London.
The progress of the Palancas Negras—which translates as ‘black sables’—is being seen as a breakthrough for women’s basketball. Behind this success is the former captain of the Angolan male basketball team, Moreira, who has coached the team for six years.
In the basketball courts of Luanda’s number one sport complex, Citadela, a youthful looking, casually dressed and relaxed Moreira gave FORBES AFRICA the inside track on this heroic chapter in Angolan basketball.
<h3>How do you explain Palancas Negras’ victory at Afrobasket Women in Bamako?</h3>
This year’s result is the fruit of continuous hard work and improvement. The Palancas Negras have already had a foot on the podium since 2007. We gained bronze at Afrobasket Women both in 2007 and in 2009. We lost against Mali twice in the finals. But now we’ve managed to beat them, which made the victory twice as beautiful.
<h3>What does this victory mean for Angola?</h3>
Male basketball was already ‘hot’ in Angola. Now that the men have lost their ticket to the Olympics, the women will definitely be in the spotlight. This victory is of key importance for Angolan female basketball, which has very little support and lacks professional organization. Angola only has four female teams—Primeiro do Agosto, Maculusso, Interclub and Juventud de Viana—of which only two are represented in the national team.
<h3>What role did leading player Nassecela Mauricio, who was elected Most Valuable Player of this year’s Afrobasket tournament, play in the female team’s victory?</h3>
She really gave it her all. She’s a fighter, and she definitely deserves this victory. But I don’t like speaking about any player in particular because the entire team played very well.
<h3>What do you and your team strive for at the Olympics, and what are the greatest challenges?</h3>
We’ll do all we can to reduce the quality gap with the other Olympic teams. Whether we manage to do so will partly depend on the team’s make-up. Height, weight, physical condition and defence are all challenges. Our tallest player is 1.92m. But we’re fast and aggressive, we always seek the best positions, and we will train hard on our three pointers. In order to gain experience, we will try to train abroad as much as we can.
<h3>Isn’t African basketball often deemed a ‘nursery’ for young talented players, who exchange their African teams for European or American teams as soon as they get a chance?</h3>
Generally speaking that’s true, but I think that would be different if they had the same opportunities at home. Africa, except for maybe Tunisia and Egypt, lacks the right conditions for basketball. To professionalize, you need good financial resources. Angola has done that. Our country used to have many players in Portugal, including myself for 11 years. But when Angola started paying well, it managed to create its own great team.
<h3>What needs to be done to improve African basketball conditions?</h3>
Focus on the basics: create more playing fields and schools. Provide the minimum conditions. In the second phase, you can start thinking about remuneration and investments. The Angolan government plans to build a venue for basketball training purposes only, but so far it is only a concept.
<h3>What do you think of the Basketball without Borders camp that was recently held in South Africa?</h3>
It seems to serve a ‘double agenda’. The concept aims at promoting basketball as a common language for global peace, friendship and sportsmanship, but at the same time serves as a recruiting platform.
I think it is an extremely valuable initiative because of the friendships, cultural exchange and experience it creates. I do agree that it’s probably not beneficial for African countries. But what matters to me more is that it benefits the players. It allows them to play in much more competitive championships and to improve their very poor African working conditions.
<h3> How does it feel to be celebrated by the Angolan president?</h3>
We’re happy! This is an acknowledgement of our hard work.

Tag: 2012 Olympics

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