The thirty-third summer Olympic Games are being carried out in France millions hope to enjoy the various contests and thousands will take part from more than two hundred countries. It is considered to be the biggest sporting event in the world and is carried out every four years. The last Olympic Games were carried out in Japan but they were held in a subdued atmosphere with limited public attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic that was ravaging the world. Millions were infected with the virus and millions others were killed due to this plague. As the world was not prepared and had little know-how about the nature of the virus and sickness many months have passed before a remedy was discovered by scientists and put to the service of the public. In fact, the competition could not be carried out in 2020 as scheduled and hence was postponed for a year to be held in 2021. It was a huge relief for all the athletes who had been preparing for a long period for such an important event that comes only once in four years. There were speculations that the games were even to be canceled totally but a compromise was reached and with a delay of a year the games went on named Japan 2020 albeit with venues attended by fewer spectators than they would have been during normal conditions.
Records show that Ethiopia’s first acquaintance with the Olympic Games began in 1956 at the Melbourne Olympics in Australia and our first participation was in cycling. There were no medals won but the country’s name was written in the history books of the Olympics with bold colors also because there were practically no other countries from sub-Saharan Africa taking part in the contest. There were no sovereign and independently recognized nations.
But later on in 1960 came the first gold medal in the Rome Olympics with the then unknown but was later to by a mythical athlete, destined to totally change the face of African athletics and become a symbol of Ethiopia, a symbol of Africa, and even a symbol of the ‘killer race’ as the marathon is popularly known. That person was the Imperial Bodyguard member, Private Abebe Bikila later to reach the level of Captain!
A lot has been said and written about the exploitation of Abebe Bikila and since then was to be the symbol of Ethiopia which introduced it to the entire world through this fantastic gold without anyone considering him as a potential winner at the marathon contest. What made even more extraordinary of this triumph was that Abebe conquered Rome barefooted! He ran all forty-two kilometers of the ‘killer race’ without having shoes on the roads of Rome. People were astounded by this achievement and the entire world applauded such an exceptional athlete that Ethiopia showcased to the world.
Since then Ethiopia and the marathon became close relatives and at every Olympic Games, there are expectations from the world that either Abebe Bikila or any other Ethiopian athlete would win the race.
In fact, the magic of Abebe Bikila was to be repeated at the Olympic Games of Tokyo in Japan, and this time Abebe won the race only three weeks after his recovery after an operation for appendicitis! That was considered another miracle. I have vivid memories of his triumphant arrival in Addis Ababa after the games in an open van with him standing up outside exhibiting to the entire nation the gold medal around his neck and donning an athlete’s sportswear.
Addis residents and even other citizens who came from outside the city for this special occasion were seen crowding the sidewalks of the streets where his convoy was passing and people were pushing and pulling trying to have a glimpse of this legendary athlete! The public was applauding warmly and calling loud his name. There was a huge excitement and people were cheering as if it was a national festival or a holiday.
They were memorable moments in the history of Ethiopia’s sports. Abebe and the delegation that went with him to Tokyo were taken from Bole International Airport directly to the Jubilee Palace. He was received and welcomed by the then Emperor Haile Selassie and high government officials and at that ceremony, he was conferred with a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant of the Imperial Bodyguard. He was also reportedly awarded a golden ring from the Emperor.
Since then Ethiopia has begun to be identified as the ‘country of runners’ and a sort of myth was created about our athletes with later on the kinds of Mamo Wolde, Miruz Yifter, and many others who came after them up to the first African and Ethiopian female athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympics Derartu Tulu who conquered Barcelona in 1992 and the multi-world record breaker Haile Gebreselassie who was destined to be a real ambassador of Ethiopia in all the fields and countries across the places where he represented Ethiopia and won countless awards including particularly gold medals in the ten thousand meter race and several other triumphs in world athletic championships and cross country races, etc.
We cannot name all the wonderful athletes who became worthwhile ambassadors of Ethiopia on the international podiums flying the famous Ethiopian flag of the tricolor; the horizontal green, yellow and red. It was to be among the most recognizable of flags as it was hoisted several times in the athletics venues where all sorts of competitions were held including most notably at the Olympics.
But here it should be appropriate to pay special tribute to two of the most decorated athletes of this generation recently given the accolade of the Best African Athletes of the 21st century with multiple gold medals won in the same venue of the Olympics, namely at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, in the five thousand and ten thousand male and female races. They are the formidable Kenenisa Bekele and the baby face ‘killer’ Tirunesh Dibaba.
All these wonderful Ethiopian athletes have become legends in the international sphere and flew the Ethiopian flag high at the venues of the Olympics and World Championships with billions of people across the world applauding them while watching them on TV winning the most arduous of contests in a spectacular manner. These Ethiopian athletes acted as true ambassadors to their nation and created a sort of curiosity about what Ethiopia stands for and what kind of country it is. Even though Ethiopia may have been considered as just another African country with several development-related challenges and many times associated with drought and conflicts in the past several decades, thanks to the exploits of its athletes it has now rebuilt its image and it is identified with glorious successes and achievements which even the most advanced and richest countries have not managed to achieve. Ethiopia achieved these results with limited resources and competing in a few categories of competitions.
At the Olympics, Ethiopia’s flag was hoisted and raised multiple times and its national anthem was sung. Those were the most important moments for all Ethiopians and even more for the athletes who were seen emotionally shedding tears of joy and exhilaration after seeing all their years of hard work and training and after many sleepless nights living the hard life of active athletes resulting in triumph.
This year as well Ethiopians dream of seeing their athletes win medals at the Paris Olympics and keep alive the tradition of victories in the various fields in which they take part. Ethiopia is particularly expected to shine in the long and middle-distance contests beginning from the marathon to the ten thousand and five thousand meter contests in both female and male categories. Still, we also hope to win in the steeplechase and potentially record better results than in the past in swimming and boxing as well.
There will be exciting two weeks or so at the Paris Olympic Games which is the thirty-third since its beginning more than a century ago. The Ethiopian flag will once again fly in the skies of Paris and its national anthem will once again be sung in front of the entire world! Once again Ethiopians will proudly applaud the triumphs of their athletes and the country’s image will shine again identified as ‘winners’, a country that will be in the limelight of world athletics with giants such as the USA, China, and others.
BY FITSUM GETACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 30 JULY 2024
