EDITORIAL COMMENT: National Sports Associations must be involved in Youth Games

Youth games

THE expanded and rebranded Zimbabwe National Youth Games could have been initially marred by “teething problems” since it was the first time a tournament of this magnitude was being hosted in the country.

Since their inception in 2003, National Youth Games offered eight sporting disciplines, but was expanded to 22 this year by offering virtually every conventional sporting discipline.

This was done in line with the Ministry of Sport and Recreation’s push to unlock the potential of sport as an employment industry that can one day compete with other sectors of the economy.

Locally, sport has largely been viewed as a pastime and hardly taken or pursued as potential employment just like any other wage paying job.

It is this lackadaisical approach to sport that the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Makhosini Hlongwane and his ministry, sought to erase from the minds of ordinary Zimbabweans, particularly the youths through a new sports policy that wants a change in mindset, so that sport is viewed as a career.

Perhaps due to lack of proper orientation, organisers of this year’s Youth Games were seemingly unprepared to deliver a hassle-free tournament.

They were overwhelmed on the first day of the tournament and failed to avail transport and food for officials and athletes.

Although these problems turned out to be temporary and were soon sorted out, we hope lessons have been learnt and next year’s Youth Games will be well organised.

Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) officials need to come together with different stakeholders that include the National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) and National Sports Associations to deliver good competitive games from which sports stars must be born.

If the Youth Games are to embody a national mini-Olympics, then these bodies must work together to deliver the best.

What we have noticed over the years is that National Sports Associations tend to fold their hands during Youth Games and leave the SRC to run things on their own.

The National Sports Associations know their respective athletes and ought to be at the forefront of supporting the National Youth Games, as they provide an opportunity for young people from around the country to compete on an equal footing.

It’s also a scouting platform for raw talent in every sport from all the country’s provinces and it is therefore worrisome when National Sports Associations fold their arms and watch from a distance instead of getting involved to unearth more gems to be nurtured for the revival of our dying sports.

These associations should not mourn that their respective sports are in decline when they are the main saboteurs of a national project to revive and grow every sport.

Maybe as custodians of sport in the country, the SRC must make it compulsory for all National Sports Associations to involve themselves in the National Youth Games, so that the tournament doesn’t appear as a poor cousin of other established national competitions.

Nash should play a crucial role just as it does during its various national tournaments because the majority of athletes that take part in the National Youth Games are secondary school learners.

If all these associations pulled in the same direction, the games will be owned by communities, with the Ministry of Sport and Recreation playing a mere facilitation role.

After all, these games belong to us the people and are for our benefit.

 

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