Khalaf Al-Harbe
I do not know how the officials in charge of sports in the Kingdom, including Prince Abdullah Bin Masaad, head of the Presidency of Youth Welfare, and the other heads of the sports federations look at the unprecedented and scandalous failure of our Olympic mission in Rio 2016.
How could these officials explain to us that not a single Saudi sportsman or woman has obtained any medal, even a wooden one, in any of the Games’ disciplines while some previously unheard of nations from the Caribbean islands have won a medal or more.
Why did we go to Rio in the first place? Why have we spent these huge sums of money if our only achievement is to attend the opening parade, raise hands in salute to the spectators and then go out of the other door?
I may not be exaggerating when I say the areas of the sports facilities and the Olympic complexes in the Kingdom are wider than the size of some small countries, which won gold, silver and bronze medals.
However, there is a big difference between the sports management, which makes achievements, and the one, which only makes statements.
I am confident that if we had participated with the statements issued by our sports officials in Rio we would have depleted the Olympic Committee of all its gold, silver and bronze medals.
The painful thing is that in the Sydney Olympics 16 years ago we won a gold medal in the athletics (400 meters hurdle) and also in equestrian.
It was expected that the gold medal won by Souaan, the athlete in the 400 meters, and the rider Eid would be the first step in our all-round development in sport and the way to obtain more medals.
Unfortunately, what we achieved in Australia was never repeated. This shows that the achievements of these two men were rather due to their own individual capabilities and not the work of the sports institution, which reaped the windfall in all the following Olympic Games.
This unfathomable failure requests a serious stand to see where the huge expenditure on sports during the past years has gone.
The legitimate question here is: what is the use of the sports institution if it is unable to make heroes or polish the national talents who are worthy of representing a country in the size and the international position of the Kingdom?
If we go back to the policy of the “long jump” and the “high vault “ and “swimming” in the pool of courtesy, we will remain in the same position during the next Olympic Games.
We will be watching the achievements of the small Caribbean islands and forget that we are a participating country in the first place.
