The President of the Ghana Olympic Committee, Ben Nunoo Mensah, has expressed disappointment at the failure of our athletes to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
He said the GOC remains committed to supporting various athletes through their federations when preparing for the Olympics and other qualifiers.
He explained that the various federations are responsible for sending their athletes to qualifiers and other events, but the GOC has supported them through these preparations.
He said that when these athletes qualify for their games, the GOC sends them to the international tournaments.
The franchise allows us to send teams to the games when our athletes qualify for these events.
However, because we want our Ghanaian athletes to perform well and qualify for the games, the GOC has consistently supported them by seeking scholarships and sponsorships for our athletes.
Speaking on Total Sports Review on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, he disclosed that there are currently eight (8) Ghanaian athletes who are on GOC scholarships.
“All the federations get sponsorship from the GOC. Whenever we’re preparing for these tournaments or games, we try our best to support them. For boxing alone this year, we have spent over $55,000 to support our boxers by sponsoring them to go to the qualifiers and qualify for the games. That is what we do. But as I speak with you, none of the federations have qualified or presented any athlete to us for the Olympics, so we can make the necessary arrangements. No Ghanaian athlete has qualified. This is so disturbing. We won so many medals during the All African Games, but no athlete managed to qualify for the Olympic Games. This is one of the years that we won so many medals. However, people are worried why we could not qualify for the Olympic Games,” he said.
He was, however, quick to add that some of the athletes qualified through what is known as the ‘wild card’s, where an athlete is rated based on their performance, and when there are some slots, these athletes are selected.
He said Ghana has benefited from the wild card in the past, especially for our swimmers and weightlifters.
He was hopeful our swimmers could get the chance through the wild cards.
He said he was not sure the weightlifters could get the opportunity this year.
“But I am optimistic that our boxers could get an opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.He said the boxers recently participated in a competition in Senegal but could not qualify because the competition was tough.
“We also sponsored them to travel to Italy to compete, but they could not qualify. As we speak, they are preparing to travel to Bangkok, Thailand, on May 20. We are optimistic that they will perform better and qualify for the Olympic Games. Our boxers are currently the only hope or chance to qualify at the moment. The reason why I am optimistic they will qualify through Bangkok is because all the tough boxers across the world have all qualified for the Olympics through one qualification tournament or another. Those who would be competing in Bangkok are not all the very tough ones. That is why I am hopeful that we may get three slots for our male boxers to compete in the Paris Games.”
He was also worried that both our male and female teams failed to qualify for the Olympics.
“With all the support our female football team received from the GOC, it was our expectation that our female football team would have qualified, but they could not.”
He attributed these challenges to our failure to invest in our sporting activities like other countries have done.
By: Rashid Obodai Provencal/Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
