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Watching the Olympic Games these past two weeks and judging from the performance of a number of foreign athletes, it is clear that although Cyprus may have sportsmen and women with the potential to win medals, the island lacks in facilities, support and identifying talent in general.
The blind approach to support anything to do with football, in the absence of developing skills and cultivating championship-level performance in other disciplines, is inexcusable. Cyprus is one of a few countries that continues to throw good money into the black hole called football, in the form of direct or indirect aid, for bankrupt clubs to build their ‘home’ grounds, projects which often run out of funds and the begging bowl is brought out again, appealing to the most ideologically sympathetic government.
The irony is that Olympic-sized pools and training grounds have been built to attract foreign athletes and northern European football teams for warm ‘winter’ training, and yet nothing is done to develop local talent. Furthermore, no emphasis is placed on enhanced academic and athletic development, not even within the army where brilliant sportsmen or culturally leaning young men are abandoned at a time when their performance may be at its peak.
The pathetic comments on TV that “our athletes did their best” is unacceptable. What our commentators should have been doing was to constantly criticise the sports federations that are allocated funds but prefer to spend money elsewhere. With Greece winning a gold and bronze in pistol shooting, there is no excuse for Cypriot athletes not to win medals, especially in areas where there is large following. Even track and field is an area that should not be ignored, where teenagers should be inspired early in order to plan ahead for the next two or three Games, as is done by more professional nations.
One only has to look at the sports development centres in the U.S., the U.K. and more recently in Qatar, to realise that any young athlete can be honed to become a champion.
For officials to inspire, they need to become the examples others should follow. But judging from the vast sense of apathy going around, that is a tall order, let alone a medal-winning effort.
