Of Olympics, Francoise Mbango Etone, and promoting sports in Cameroon

Francoise Mbango Etone of Cameroon has successfully defended her Olympic triple jump title, setting a games record of 15.39 meters.

Mbango, Cameroon’s first individual Olympic gold medalist when she won at Athens in 2004 after two silvers at the worlds, set the mark in Beijing.

She came back this season after spending most of 2006 and 2007 off the circuit for a combination of reasons, including injuries, studies, becoming a mother not leaving out friction with the country's athletics federation.

But for Francoise Mbango Etone, Cameroon’s 77-man delegation to the Beijing Olympics would have been returning home empty-handed; for no reason at all. Even then many are those who believe a lone medal is a shamefully poor harvest owing to the fact that Cameroon has the infinite ability to do so much more.

Why should Cameroon count on luck rather than get organised and determine how it must be? Why shouldn’t Cameroon be aiming at 30 or more medals of all categories at the London games? To begin with?

The billion dollar question is how Cameroon could have registered for only nine events out of thirty-five at the Beijing Olympics, given the importance of sports in unifying the nation and creating a favourable image for Cameroon abroad.

In effect, Government should start right away to prepare for the London Olympics in four years’ time. Cameroon is full of sporting talents of all types.

It shouldn't be Mbango, time and again, after all every event is in both male and female versions; and most events are in several categories. This makes the scope for participation incredibly v-a-s-t. It is we ourselves who in the end are our own limitation.

The government of Cameroon must decide right away to identify talents of all types and actively encourage them to prepare for 2012. Participating and winning must no longer be a matter of luck.

The Mount Cameroon race has over the years created a culture of racing, making our men and women fit for track events from the steeplechase (200 metres) through to the Decathlon (10,000 meters).

The MILANO club is the initiative of Cameroonians based in Kumbo in the NW province that trains Cameroonians in all Olympic events. Earlier this year three of four of their men won the Boston marathon in the US. The government can build on that effort or create its own centre for the recruitment and training of talents in Olympic events.

In the next four years so much can happen. But such an effort will only succeed with a total redefinition of the present rules of many sporting federations.

Imagine for instance that a talented person is denied participation because he couldn’t bribe his chiefs! How do you call that? Shooting oneself on the foot? So, corruption and favoritism should be put aside.