Near the very place where our gallant athlete Abebe Bikila won the first ever gold medal at Rome Olympic, Tamrat Tola has repeated the Golden History!
Congratulations to all Ethiopians! Kudos to our heroic athlete Tamrat Tola for the first gold medal to his country on the ongoing Paris Olympic “Paris 2024”
‘The runner created quite a stir at the starting line of the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome, the land of emperors. This thin Ethiopian caught the attention of his Western opponents. “Oh, well, this one we can beat” quipped an Australian runner to his teammates.’ That is how Dean W, Arnold opens his classic book about Ethiopia, ‘The Unknown Empire.’
‘For a moment, he goes on to write; the camera shows Bikila’s face. The commentator asks, “And what’s this Ethiopian called?”
Well, he was called Abebe Bikila. With our performance at the Paris Olympics, which brought us more frowns than smiles, and all the narratives that fill the social media it’s time to recall at least some of our greats and what our athletes have been doing to athletics at large and the Olympics in particular. At the time of this writing we still have some races and some medals might come our way. But much of the public isn’t at all happy with what has been seen already and all the signs are the house of our country’s sport isn’t at all good.
Our problem is since unsubstantiated and at times toxic gossip flying all over the place the chance being led up the garden path is easier than we could imagine.
Usually the gossips start with something like, “Have you heard?”
“Have I heard what?”
“Have you heard what they’re doing in that sport body we were talking about the other day? They’re emptying it off everything like blind!” But then you most probably hear other far flung versions of the same story. There must be some way the public could be told as much truth as possible since a clean sweep would be practically impossible.
Recently the news, which has yet to be verified by more trusted sources, is that top officials why who flew to Paris had with them their own families who have nothing to do with either the sport world of the country or the Paris Olympics. And the funds come from the budget set aside for the competition. But we were not about that.
We graced the Olympics with the Abebe Bikila’s bare foot run; a feat never again repeated by others. We graced the Olympics and world championships with the legendary Green Flood. We graced sport arenas all over the world with broken records and wonderful displays of sportsmanship.
Dean Arnold goes on to write about Abebe Bikila’s Rome Olympics triumph.
“Before the race one resourceful reporter found a translator and was able to ask (Abebe) a few questions.
“Why do you run barefoot?”
“Habit”
“Will you be able to finish the race?”
“If I were not going to finish the race I would not start….”
Wouldn’t you say that is as classic a response as anyone can give? Abebe is also quoted as saying that the people were poor with no mechanical support adding… “So we run everywhere on foot. Forty kilometers are nothing to me.” get me another athlete from yesterday or today who has the guts to say “Forty kilometers are nothing to me.”
Yes we must have more global household names when it comes to the wonders of long distance running. How can the world afford to forget Miruts Yifter, the Shifter!
And then there is Haile;
One reporter calls Haile G/Selassie “A little man with a big heart.”
Olympics.com writes this about Haile;
“Throughout his prolific career, Gebrselassie’s pure love of running was a constant theme, as was his trademark smile. “It’s in my nature. I can’t change that. It’s not just when I win; I laugh when I lose as well.” It is that beautiful attitude, as well as his feats on the track, that will ensure the Ethiopian’s place in sporting history.
And then there’s Kenenisa;
Kenya’s Bernard Lagat had this to say about Kenenisa Bekele
“Kenenisa has really everything that it takes to be a champion. I would love to be like him. He is really great and I presume we will have to wait for a long time before we will see another runner like him in the future. Kenenisa is one of the greatest athletes of all time,” said. That was us at the Olympics and on the racetracks of the world.
And then there is that memorable moment celebrated by Teddy Afro’s wonderful piece when at one race Haile falls behind and Kenenisa who was almost at the finishing line repeatedly looking back worried about the legendary Haile’s condition who fall behind. Such scenes aren’t common in such competitions or anywhere else for that matter. It was the most memorable display of camaraderie the kind of which are seldom seen. That was us; that camaraderie was what the ‘Green Flood’ was all about.
“Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele has emulated female compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba in claiming a rare long-distance double when he won the 5,000 meters to add to his 10,000m Olympic crown.
“His triumph was the first such men’s double since compatriot Miruts Yifter’s feat over the same events at the 1980 Moscow Games.
“Dibaba’s double over the same distance had been a landmark for women athletes.”
That was us. That was what we Ethiopians were all about when it came to the Olympics and all other international races.
And then there’s Deraratu Tulu;
“Derartu is the first Ethiopian woman and the first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal,” that’s our story at the Olympics.
And then there’s Tirunesh Dibaba;
“Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia produced her trademark electric last lap to win the women’s 10,000 meters gold medal at the Olympics on Friday. Dibaba set a new Olympic record time of 29 minutes 54.66 seconds in perfect conditions at a packed National Stadium,” That’s our story at the Olympics.
Only a few of an entire generation of great runners who thought of their country and their people and wrote some of the most glittering stories of great sportsmanship. And with all that’ has been happening with the Paris Olympics we’d be pardoned to crave for those kind of days, days when hundreds of thousands and even millions took to the streets to welcome their heroes. We just hope that wouldn’t be still a long way out as we don’t deserve that!
“Forty kilometers are nothing to me.” That’s the mindset we need!
-What’s Going On!
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been watching all that was happening in British cities. At times in the cities appeared movie sets where the most violent of action film ever made anywhere else was being shot. At times it appeared that maybe, just maybe some alien creatures were manipulating that has happened or AI has gone berserk leading people to part with the real reality on the ground causing all the destruction to their country and making the lives of their own citizens miserable. I mean the level of violence knew no bounds. How could this happen. Does that mean the country has all that time been harboring such people who were practically trying to torch it to ashes and they were only waiting for the right time and the right pretext to act! And act, they did.
Now as innocent as one can be you might think that those responsible the politicians, the media, and the security forces would take matters into their hands and quell the mayhem that was being dealt to the cities and also to the reputation of the country. But sadly enough that didn’t happen. The media? Well I think I given all we’ve been seeing and learning since some years back I don’t think talking of the media over there and elsewhere on the Western world would be far from smart; with the politicians all we see is finger pointing, lots of it too. The accusations, the denunciations fly all-round. Of course you need an Einstein mind to decipher what the hell is everyone talking about while the priority should have been bringing back the calm and once the dust settles everyone can go out with the guns blazing. Look, there would probably be a couple of friends who after reading or skimming through this piece would probably be giving a not so great Sunday evening or Monday morning.
“What is it to you whatever happens over there? It is their country and it is their concern. Don’t you have more pressing problems of your own like revaluating your household budget before starting to cry foul?”
“Look, I think you’ve staring drinking some hard stuff you cope with. A sane person wouldn’t jump from Addis to London uninvited and also unwanted.”
Yes it might sound a little off-track talking about something happening thousands of kilometers away while we’ve our own heavy baggage. But believe me the things that happen over there and other such places could affect us in more ways than one even if indirectly. After all we’ve tens even hundreds of thousands of our compatriots out there. Given the recent financial changes in this country we need them more than ever! (“Aha!” some would say “So that was what it was all about! All about the dollars and the pounds!) But more importantly in this age of a few things we know and much more we don’t know a sneeze or two over there could set off some severe cold epidemic over here. It’s as simple as that.
Back to a couple of things that confuse us back here. When the politicians throw ‘insults’ and slanders at each other we hear of one side accusing the other of being a far left. Hmmm! In the American election “far left,” “radical left” have become regular dishes on the political menu. Over there now the name of Carl Marx is being echoed more and more. In fact we’ve heard some of being accused of being Marxists. At least that’s better as you can goggle what that heavily bearded fellow is supposed to have propagated. (By the way is he the fellow who said something like, “You’ve nothing to lose, but your chains!”) I mean if you fly private jets, drive Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces, live in multimillion dollar villas and are still labeled as ”far left,” the world is indeed changing beyond our wildest expectations. I mean even in the movies we still have to see the red flag with the star and all that draped on some Lamborghini.
Coming back to the British riots the irony of it all was that another violence protest, though for completely different reasons, was going on in Bangladesh. And believe me for us back here it’s a little difficult to not to be drawn into analyzing both side by side. Both protesting sides carried sticks (tough in Bangladeshi it’s largely bamboos!) stones, sharp objects and the like. Both protesting sides were clearly agitated, angry and all signs were that most of them were out for blood literally and figuratively. The Bangladeshis wanted to chase the Prime Minster from power (Which she smartly did!) and the British protesters wanted to chase the illegal immigrants all the way to the English Channel and beyond. One visible difference was that in the Bangladeshi case, maybe because of heavily edited newsfeeds we didn’t see as much property damages as we saw in the British cities. Of course, having turned the vacated house of the former Prime Minister they not only turned into a mess they had their fill of the Prime Minister’s culinary! Ha! Now they know what the food up there tastes like.
I mean there things you just are forced to mull in your mind one question being how is that the law enforcement people didn’t act fast when they were practically under siege in most places. At times they were the ones retreating though still many of them suffered injuries some of them serious. I mean when all those objects were thrown at them when they were subjected to all the abuse by the thugs, as much of the British media calls them, are there laws that prevent them from defending themselves? Just curious. I mean watching what has been transpiring on the streets of British cities it is not at all easy to form opinions though it might in a way or two be none of our business. The streets of one of the most powerful countries in the world being decimated with such venom by its own citizens, and it looking like so out-of-the-world sort of scenario it is practically difficult to come up with any final understanding of the whole the thing.
What really is going on over there? Just curious.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 11 AUGUST 2024