‘Africa not ripe for Olympics’
PRESIDENT of the African National Olympic Committee Games (ANOCA), Lassana Pallenfo has ruled out the possibility of an African country hosting the Olympic Games for now.
According to him, no country in Africa can muster the finances needed for such hosting, saying an attempt made by Cape Town to bid for the game was unsuccessful because no single town in the whole of Africa can provide all it takes to host a single Olympic Games.
He said that even hosting the All Africa Games which is tailored along the Olympics Games, is very difficult for African countries, which had forced the organisers of the games to always postpone it on several occasions. It took the timely intervention of all, for the forthcoming AAG to be hosted in Maputo,” he explained.
Nairobi was supposed to host it asked for an extension of four more years. When the present host took over two years ago, we had to rest over eight sports to enable them meet up.
But the bitter thing is that these sports are Olympic Sports, and we are working out modalities to make sure African countries will not lag behind in the Olympics in these sports. He appealed for adequate coverage of African traditional sports to enable it gain the accepted recognition in Olympics.
He said that $65,000 will be given to all National Olympic Committees to enable them prepare adequately for the London game.
He said that it is the dream of ANOCA to see that African countries excel in the London 2012 Olympic Games, saying that a high performance training centre and Institute would soon be established in Abuja adding that in the nearest future, that the Association would replicate the low cost training centre established in Lusaka, Zambia in all the African countries to ensure that more athletes are discovered from the grassroots.