The role of African athletes in the development of sport

An African athlete can be categorised as an athlete, either living abroad or in his/her home country, who has represented his/her country of origin at both local and international levels.

A typical African athlete can do a lot for their country either by giving a good representation of themselves abroad and promoting a good image of their country, or by giving back by way of charity work (or other public service) to help in the development of their homeland.

Africa is blessed with a wealth of sporting talent, including amongst the disabled. The continent takes part in over 50 sports internationally; the most popular of these within the continent are football, track and field events, cricket, rugby and polo. Disabled athletes from Africa are some of the most prolific when it comes to winning medals, especially at the Paralympics Games.

Lack of sport development in Africa
However, one of the problems facing sports in Africa is the lack of its development on the continent. Most athletes often have to go abroad to better exploit their skills and talents. Take for example football; no African country has a fully developed league that can attract a top international player. Even the US, which is considered fairly new when it comes to football, compared to an African country like Nigeria for example, has a reputable professional league that could boast of international stars like David Beckham and even Nigeria's Obafemi Martins.

Ways for African athletes to give back to their country
One way African athletes can give back to the continent is to ensure the development of their individual sport to the extent that athletes can be groomed here, exploit their talents here and gracefully represent their countries on the international front as "home-based" athletes. Africa cannot continue relying on Europe and America to groom their talents.

African athletes can help sports back home by building or organising youth clinics. They can become involved in the making and exacting of sports legislature and push for inclusion of sports in school curricula, such that inter-school competitions at primary and secondary school levels is a norm that is promoted and sponsored by the state and federal governments and not a fancy that is picked up by some corporate body to promote themselves.

It is not enough to serve your country and then fold your arms after retirement. Athletes owe it to their individual sports, talents, passion for the game to help create an enabling sports environment that will make it much easier for future athletes.

They can become more involved in their sports on a management level. Most African governments have a choke-hold on sports management in their country; by getting involved in the politics of sports management, athletes who have served their country well can bring their knowledge of how the sport is handled in countries where they thrive, to bear in their home countries.

It will take work, it will take a fight, it will take true commitment, but most of all it requires the love of the sport which should push a true athlete to want to see it live through future generations.