For 52 years, Team Malawi has been puffing and huffing in Olympic Games without success dividing stakeholders’ opinion on factors leading to the country’s lack of podium finish in global games, Malawi News Sport has the details.
Team Malawi recently returned from the 2024 Paris Olympics in France where they did not win a medal joining a host of countries as table anchors. According to olympedia.org, Malawi first competed at the 1972 Olympic Games, but was absent in 1976 and 1980. Since 1984, it has been present at each Olympics but it is yet to win a medal.
Lack of funding and poor infrastructure have been listed as the key factors that have led to Team Malawi’s unconvincing performance at big games.
At the Paris Olympics, Team Malawi was among countries that featured the least participants in athlete Asimenye Simwaka (100 metres), swimmers Filipe Miguel Gomes and Tayamika Chang’anamuno (50 metres freestyle).
Team Malawi’s Chef de mission Naomi Chinatu admited that they did not expect the trio to win medals.
“On our part we feel we gave the athletes the best possible preparations. Honestly, we did not expect them to win medals but we thought that they could beat their own records and also reach the final or at least semi-finals of their respective events,” Chinatu said.
During the Games, Simwaka bowed out in the first round, having progressed to this stage following a second finish in heat two of the preliminary round.
In the preliminary round she ran 11:78 but in the first round she exited the competition after running 11:98.
The 100m national record holder failed to match her personal best of 11:35, blaming a hamstring injury sustained during the warm up session.
Her compatriots who hold national records in 50 metres freestyle, also failed to match the records.
Gomes finished the distance in 24:11, failing to match his seed time of 23:99.
Another swimmer Changanamuno was close to her seed time of 29:22 when she swam 29:32 but it was not enough to take her through.
Such has been Team Malawi’s story where athletes and officials beam with confidence prior to the Games but only to exit the race in the early rounds.
Chinatu fears that Team Malawi’s wait for an Olympics medal will extend to 56 years after finishing among the bottom countries in Paris.
Five teams Albania, Cabo Verde, Dominica, Saint Lucia and the Refugee Olympic Team enjoyed rare success at the Games after they all won their first medals in Paris.
Chinatu, who is a director at Malawi Olympic Committee, has called for stakeholders to jointly pump in resources.
“We need to put resources into one pot to run the exercise jointly. There are some races in the country that are not helpful. Before the race you would actually know who is going to win or finish in top three,” she said.
She cited Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo who won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics in the 200 metres event as a product of Region 5 Youth Games.
“He was part of the squad that won medals for Botswana in Lesotho during the Region 5 Youth Games. In fact their entire 400 metres relay race team was also in Lesotho four years ago.
“We need races and other events that will help identify and prepare athletes for big events. This is why I suggest that resources should be put in one place then identify and prepare the athletes,” she said.
Athletics Malawi President Kondwani Chamwala admitted that lack of funding was also affecting their developmental plans.
“To win medals at major events like the Olympics, you need thorough preparations including participating in more international tournaments,” he said.
Sports analyst Frank Chakanga said Team Malawi should learn to prepare thoroughly and qualify for the games.
“Failure to prepare is as good as preparing to fail. Every time we go to the Olympic Games we go in solidarity meaning we fail to qualify. This time our athletes went on Universality as they were close to qualifying standards,” Chakanga said.
However, he bemoaned funding hence the need for stakeholders to declare resources channelled towards preparations.
Chakanga also pointed out lack of political will by the government to spearhead progress on sport and lack of visionary sports officials.
“Incompetent officials squeeze themselves into positions to run sports and they cannot rejuvenate teams to perform well since they lack the capacity to do so.
On funding, Chakanga encouraged the government to finalise various projects including the Griffin Saenda Sports Complex and National Aquatic Centre, both in the Capital City, Lilongwe.
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