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Preparation: The Soul of Success.
By Toyin | October 1, 2008
A journey of a thousand years begins with a step, so says the Chinese proverb. And this absolutely captures the attitude of an average Chinese athlete towards preparation for the Olympics held in Beijing two months ago.
Prior to the commencement of the games, I watched a documentary on the extent of the seriousness attached to the Olympics by the Chinese. Mothers would take their young children to the pools for training for a minimum of six hours in preparation for future games. To represent the nation is an honour that is unparalleled.
When the previous Olympics ended in Athens, the organizing committee for the Beijing games swung into action like possessed people. As they put up super infrastructures, grueling training sessions for the athletes were going on simultaneously. This was a great opportunity for the nation to announce the emergency of China as the new economic super power; and they were not going to pass it up!
The opening ceremony of the Beijing games was a spectacle never witnessed before. Even the American cable news network, CNN, commended the Chinese for treating the world to the greatest opening ceremony ever. According to media statistics, 2.6 billion people witnessed the Olympics. Surely, this represents the greatest opportunity to showcase to the world what the Chinese stands for.
Apart from the threat of air pollution hanging over Beijing and the unfortunate murder of an American tourist, the game was perfect in execution. From the games village where all the athletes stayed to the surrounding environments, everything was spick and span.
The gruesome training sessions I spoke about earlier paid huge dividends for the nation as she topped the medals table. Even the mighty United States had to settle for second place. When they counted all the medals won in gymnastics, china won 83% of the gold and 75% of the rest. It was a total domination.
Now to where I am headed, the Chinese knew their strengths. They identified three major areas to concentrate on viz: Gymnastics, Swimming and Table Tennis. The full compliment of their training programs was deployed for all other fields they contested in but they had their area of concentration well defined. They focused on these and prepared for four years; yes, four years.
There was no room for laxity. While failure may be inevitable, the catch is that you must have been seen to have given your best. To achieve the best, the athletes were motivated beyond any doubt and they delivered.
It would be an anathema to hear that an official siphoned fund meant for training or athletes welfare. They were all about the business of bringing glory to the empire.
What lessons are there to gain from the Olympics? Putting square pegs in square holes is one at least!
In Nigeria, we politicize everything and even that does not augur well for the society at large. At least our leaders were in Beijing and they saw first class organization and what a nation could achieve when driven by visionaries. Yet, we would only be day dreaming if we continue to carry out our national businesses the way we have done all these years.
As we have been declared the host for the FIFA under 17 championship in 2009, it not too late to start earnest preparation to give the world a fresh breath of air concerning this great country. Neither is it too early to start preparing for the nations and world cup taking place in 2010.
At the risk of sounding crazy, shall we begin preparation immediately for the London 2012 Olympics? It is definitely not too early to do so; that is if we want to matter at all at that event!
Topics: Success Pills, Who Will Win |