Thursday, March 28, 2024

Rio Olympics poor showing not shocking-Matate

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Rio2016Athletics icon Samuel Matete says Zambia’s dismal show at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was inevitable.

In an interview in Kitwe on Wednesday, Zambia’s most decorated sportsman said the nation has not done much to produce athletes who can mint medals at major competitions like the Olympics.

Judoker Mathews Punza, boxer Ben Muziyo, swimmer Jade Howard, female runner Kabange Mupopo swimmer Ralph Goviea and 100 meters male runner Gerald Phiri have all bowed out of the games.

“We cannot talk about Zambian athletes winning medals at the Olympics now. What have we done where we are coming from? What have we done to win medals?” Matete remarked.

The 1996 Olympics Silver Medalist said national sports association’s needs to put in place deliberate measures that would enable Zambia produce medal winning athletes.

“We need long term strategic plans. Look at the grassroots development. The talent is there but we need to tap it.

“We have Olympics in 2020 and 2024 but what are we doing to ensure that we are ready to win medals at those events,” he said.

Long-distance runner Jordon Chipangama is the remaining medal hopeful and will be on the track on August 21 for the 41 kilometers marathon.

“As Zambia we still have a long to develop sport. We need to talk less and be more practical,” Matete concluded.

Matete won a gold medal at the 1991 World Championships and was twice silver medalist at the same event besides winning gold at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

Matete later won a silver medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta in what still is Zambia’s last medal at the World biggest showpiece event.

16 COMMENTS

  1. I live here in South Africa and everyday i see how comitted people are when they are preparing for any sports events like the olympics they work very hard and put in alot of hours for them to succeed you guys there in Zambia are not serious but you want to win Why

  2. Its simple, a politician or armature who has no clue on Olympics wants to run it forever. There are people who have excelled in this sphere at higher level and yet they are suppressed by gold diggers. I have always asked myself, why do we wait until the last minute? Those entrusted with this responsibility do not know what it means to excel at that level. They think preparing a player or Olympian its a two weeks or one month period. There is massive corruption for one to be selected on higher level. I remember this myself at high school, Petauke boarding school, as a case in point, was one of the best schools in Eastern Province around 96-2000 but each time students from these schools were selected to represent the Province none of them were picked. We could just hear from others that…

  3. What do you expect when you build stadia with no plan…Heros stadium is unused all the time..that old independence stadium should have been converted into an athletics stadium but our politicans are simply interested in kickbacks.

  4. This is the same with u20 in football, right now its silent and you have only 5 month to host a tournament. No friendlies, No advertising, No high profile activities sounding the u20 national team preparation. This is why Zambian players fail to tick in Europe because they have been lazily trained. Think about Europe what has been happening. Players had just finished Barclays Premiere league, they were at Euro Tony, Friendlies and now it starts again. Was there a break? ……You know readers the answer and then you have qualifiers too. Its full time employment!!!

  5. Matete my brother as long as the National Olympic Committee is under the same leadership of Mrs Moyo, Hazel Kennedy, and all those that worship her without choice, we will not get anything.
    They are old and have outlived their usefulness although they still intimidate those that want to oppose them. There are young training people now in Zambia in sport who have been frustrated by these two and further more Mr Clement Chileshe at OYDC is another stumbling block. I wish they could read this and if at all there is somebody who will read this message and relay it to them may be they can here. Mrs Moyo has always just looked forward to taking here children to the Olympic Games and never had the heart to give a chance to people like coaches whose disciplined have never qualified to the…

  6. Yet, we are the loudest when it comes to crying. Be honest with yourselves please for your consciences sake, how do you pick 100m Olympian who score 11.23 second to go and overhaul a 09.85 seconds? Realistic?

  7. Mrs Moyo always looks forward to take her children to the opening ceremony and closing ceremony. Not that she not allowed to do so but my point is that she can sacrifice that slot for a coach whose discipline did not qualify so that she/he can learn a few points by seeing what goes on there. Come next year, she will be standing again on the elections. She depends on NOCZ for her living. It is a nightmare to her to think of stopping.

  8. My advise to Matete, please go to the corporate world and source for sponsorship to just nurture ten players. Do not promise much but be honest with them and train them under your tutorage and compete at an international level your product and tell the nation from your results that this is what I have accomplish. Give me the mandate to run the rest of the affairs and see what I can do!

    • Corporate world does not work with one man teams..they need everyone to part-take and people with a vision working in synergy!!

  9. Ok there is a provision to take some athletes in a few disciplines on what is called wild cat so that a country that is affiliated to the International Olympic Committee can take some athletes there for exposure purposed and you can pick on those you think are near the qualifying times, but the whole issue here is that the leadership has outlived its usefulness and the system of removing them on the National Olympic Committee Board is almost nil if you are not already in. They lobby within themselves to vote for each other and if they get 12 votes from the Board members it means already that person has 24 votes. So an outsider to get those votes is almost impossible. There was two guys and girl who trained in Cuba in Sport but they were so frustrated that they left National Olympic…

    • Theres no such provision for the Olympics. You are talking about Wild card entries. These are given for particular sports disciplines and their competitions but not by the IOC. You have to qualify meeting minimum variables for the olympics

  10. This man has tried to help Zambia produce World Class athletes but people dont want to listen to him. That Mpondela fellow whom the country allows to run athletics has never done anything in sport. Mpondela wants a source of income while Matete wants Zambia to achieve national glory but all of us politicians, sports adminstrators and fans dont want to support Matete when it matters.
    We must realise Zambia needs a revolution in sport. Some of us went to schools where there was all kinds of sporting disciplines which have all completely died now. Ask anyone who went to Kitwe Boys, Kiwte Girls, Ibenga Girls, Chingola High School, Mufulira High School in the 60s 70s they will tell you they played Hockey, Cricket, Swimming, Hurdles, Badminton, Baskeball, Lawn Tennis etc. Where are all these…

  11. Where are all these sports today? Dead with no hope of revival.
    Government must know that without these kind of sports, would be participants become criminals, Jerabos, Ngwangwazis, unruly party cadres.

  12. We need to have tournaments….starting from district level…then provincial then national atleast 2 times a year….I believe we have plenty of talent which we are letting die because our leaders are not interested

  13. Truly spoken, its sad when you come out in public that you are ruing over the poor performance of a particular team when you did very little to lay the ground work. One reaps what he saws. You saw sparingly, you will reap little/sparingly and when you saw bountifully or handsomely the dividends will be plenty to exhibit with pride.

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