ATHLETICS: Duncan Mackay
THIS season will be remembered as the one when athletics was consumed by a global revolution; the year when you needed an atlas more than a stats book. Never before have so many athletes from so many different countries been so successful.
At the world championships, there was a greater spread of honours than ever before: a record 43 countries winning medals as Britain’s total was halved from Stuttgart. Among the nations who have emerged on to the world scene this season have been Syria, the Bahamas and Madagascar.
”The little guys have proved we compete with the rest of the world,” declared the world high jump champion, Troy Kemp, of the Bahamas. ”Track and field is the most global sport in the world. Everyone understands it. Anyone can do it.”
Helmut Digel, the head of the German federation, predicted that if this pace were kept up, in a few years ”European nations could end up being the developing countries”.
The rewriting of the world athletics map can be traced back to the day in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. When the Soviet Union and East Germany broke up, the structure — including, in the Germans’ case at least, a state-sponsored drugs programme — that had nurtured a constant stream of world-beating athletes went with
”Now it’s more difficult to be an athlete in Russia because there is no money to prepare properly,” said Evgeni Kuznetsov, Russia’s senior coach.
At the same time, other countries have invested heavily in development programmes. Even minor athletic countries such as Saudi Arabia are now receiving huge state financial support. ”If we are to maintain our status in the future, a radical change in attitude is needed in the funding of athletics by the government,” warned Malcolm Arnold, Britain’s chief coach.
Underfunded British athletes will look with envy at Ghada Shouaa, the world pentathlon champion. The Syrians spent a six-figure sum on her, enabling her and her Russian coach to spend the past year training in Cyprus. ”They want me to do well so I can send a message to my people that we can compete on the world stage,” she said. ”And if they need to spend money, they will do that.”
One of the outstanding features of this season has been the success of Caribbean athletes. With people such as Don Quarrie and Merlene Ottey, Jamaica has always been a sprinting power house. But, thanks to athletes like Kemp, Dominica’s world triple jump bronze medallist, Jerome Romain, and Trinidad’s 100m runner Ato Boldon, this year the calypso beat has been particularly loud.
The one thing all the islands’ top athletes have in common is that they go to United States universities on scholarships. ”They were always good athletes in the Caribbean, now they have the chance to train at our colleges,” said John Smith, Boldon’s coach.
Kemp said this has been crucial to their success. ”In America, you have the chance to fully develop your talent. It’s no coincidence that when you combine Caribbean athletes, who have the talent, with American coaches, who have the knowledge, they should be outstandingly successful. They just need that
Unsurprisingly, not everyone is so happy about the situation, especially the United States, who, despite winning more medals than anyone else, had their worst world championships ever this year.
”American athletes are being short-changed,” said Carl Lewis. ”The United States is training foreigners to beat its own.”
But it is not just America which is proving a magnet. As the world has got smaller, there have been more opportunities for athletes from previously under- developed countries to train and live abroad. In London during the summer there are often up to 30 world-class Kenyans, a contrast to the days when people like Kip Keino and Filbert Bayi disappeared between major
They have been attracted by athletic representatives such as Kim McDonald, who, like football managers, regularly make scouting trips to Africa. Moses Kiptanui, the world 3 000m steeplechase champion and record holder, was brought to England five years ago by McDonald as an unknown. ”Being in London has given me opportunities I couldn’t have imagined,” said Kiptanui.
It has been the same story all over Europe as foreign athletes have based themselves here to launch attacks on the grand prix circuit.
Of course, Kenyan and Ethiopian runners have long been major players on the world stage. But with the sea of talent being trawled more widely than ever, new examples of athletes from previously unlikely countries are emerging each passing season.
”Participation was once restricted to a small pool of people,” said Dr David Martin, an American exercise physiologist. ”Now, it’s available to many more people and we are seeing phenomenal talent from all over the
The Italian-based Venuste Niyongabo, whose performances in the 1 500m present the acceptable face of Burundi, said we should not be surprised at what has happened.
”All athletes from the smaller countries need and ask for is the chance to compete,” he said. ”When they are given that, this is what happens. What you are seeing is just the start.”