The Olympic Games; the glory of the world. Many great athletes from around the world unite at this special event. To the nacked eye, it looks like everything is perfect, but really it is not. If you look behind the scenes you will soon find out that many athletes have to struggle to make it to The Olympics, and have their dreams come true. Athletes from struggling countries have to face all problems that surround them. Many of these problems are caused by political, financial, or religious contraverceis. Many athletes overcome these problems and achieve success. In this Web Page you can learn about a few of the problems facing some Olympians today.
Nine years ago, Yugoslavia beat the U.S., to won the World Junior Basketball title. Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs from the former Yugoslavian team would of bean stars, but politics have driven them apart. Yugoslavia's basketball team was great between the years 1984 to 1987. The team was undefeated. Many players went on to play in the NBA . For example: Divac joined the Los Angeles Lakers, Toni Kukoc joined the Chicago Bulls, and Dino Radja joined the Boston Celtics. . All members of the team worked very hard in practice. The beauty of the team was how united they were. They laughed and cried together. Toni Kukoc said once: "Who could think about war?... No one!". Once the war broke out, and regions were seperated politically, many friendships were lost. This year in the 1996 Olympic games, players who played together in previous Olympics had to play on different teams. Divac and Djordjevic played for the Yugoslavian team, ( which is now a new country) and Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja played for Croatia. These two teams never faced each other on the court.
More than 200,000 people have been killed, and approxmately 3 million people have been left homeless since thestart of the war. The war started as a result of the conflicts between the orthodox Serbs, Roman catholic Croats, and Muslims of Bosnia.The conditions in the homelands greatly effected the training and the emotions of all the players. The Yugoslavian team overcame these difficulties and succeeded to the final game in 1996 Olympic games, however they lost to the U.S.A Dream team. The Yugoslavian Team had to overcome poor training conditions as well as separation fromprevious team members.
As society advances in many places, our thoughts of men being more athletic than women has weakened. Job opportunities are more equal, sports are becoming more equal and men have taken over some of the jobs used to be known as "women's work". Why then are some Islamic countries still banning women from these oportunities? Women in these countries are forbidden to expose their bodies. No shoprts or bathing suits even for athletic events. Some even argue that women should be forbidden to even compete in front of men. This has been a struggle for many as their barrier to reaching their goals.
Hassiba Boulmerka of Algeria managed to make it to the Barcelona Olympic games in 1992, but has not returned home since, due to the threats she received. Her home country would have her greeted with a parade of shooting guns and terror rather than a parade of fireworks and glory.
In the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games, advances were made to ban those countries who did not allow women to compete, from attending the games. Linda Weil- Curiel from the Atlanta Plus remarked, "Either you want to belong to the Olympic charter (and) you have to respect the charter, or you say you just don't want your women to participate and you have to leave." The Olympic charter rules that athletes must have an equal opportunity in playing regardless of their gender, race or religion. It is hard to believe as an American in 1996 that some countries will take their whole team out the Olympic games because they feel more strongly that women should not be allowed to compete. Many Islamic countries argue that it is a matter of cultural integrity. Critics reply that it is a matter of human rights.
To date, there are no countries banned from the Olympics due to gender segregation. The Olympic charter fears that it would be excluding teams due to their cultural beliefs. Also, many countries aren't allowing women to participate because they do not have enough money to support their women atheletes. Countries have been eliminated because of apartheid and other segregations, but not yet gender. I think that in the near future these teams will not be able to compete due to our rising beliefs of equality between sexes.
Her birth name is Ana Fidelia Quirot Moret, but those who know her as their hero, refer to this track star as Ana Quirot. Ana acheived a bronze in the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona for her home country of Cuba. Once home she suffered an accident which left her near dead. She recovered amazingly and was at the starting line of the 800 meter run, at the Olympics in at Atlanta.
In January 1993, just six months after the Olympic Games, Ana Quirot of Cuba received severe burns in a domestic accident. She was pregnant at the time, and while in the hospital fighting for her life, she gave birth to her premature daughter. At the end of 1993 Ana made her important comeback, but her daughter did not survive, she died a week after she was born.
Her first competition, after her recovery was in November of 1993, was just nine months after her accident. The competition was at the Central American Games where she placed second with a time of 2:03.19. However, she did not compete in 1994, feeling she needed more time of recovery both physically and mentally, before returning. In 1995, she returned to the competition tracks and won four of her eleven races. In 1996 she came back even stronger. She arrived in Atlanta this summer to compete in the 800 meters, her specialty. She struggled through the race. In the second half of the race she managed her way out of the pack, but could not outrun the long strides of Russia's Svetlana Masterkova. Ana had to settle for the silver. After the race, Ana acknowledged that she was fortunate to be running at all. "For me," she added, "to have improved from a bronze (at Barcelona) to a silver here is as good as gold. Everybody knows what I went through. I overcame death to be here."
In comparison to Josia Thugwane's tough battles with racial equality in South Africa, the marathon in Atlanta looked simple. Josia Thugwane of Witbank, South Africa, which is right outside Johannesburg, has had to deal with apartheid in his home country all his life. In South Africa the whites held the supremacy in the country although the blacks took 75% of the total population. "This minority" was forced into only 13% of South Africa's total land. This segregation led to crime, violence, and hatred for many years. South Africa's apartheid prevented the country from participating in the Olympics for over 30 years. In the mid 1980's, attempts to end apartheid increased. In 1990, the new president F. W. de Klerk freed South Africa of apartheid. Nelson Mandela, an ANC leader was released from jail and appointed to the presidency of the country. This allowed for South Africa to compete in the Olympics for the first time in 32 years.
Just four months ago this year, Josia Thugwane was leaving work in the coal mines, to visit his family in Kriel. While driving, three men entered his car and demanded his keys. Thugwane hesitated, the hijackers held out a gun and shot Josia in the face numerous times. He managed to escape from the moving car and lay silently on the ground near the road. Thugwane said, "I thought there was no possibility I would run again." However, he recovered and was there at the gun shot, to start of the men's marathon in Atlanta. He has only one scar on his chin and occasional back pains to remind him of the hijacking ordeal.
Josia Thugwane knew that this race was going to be a challenge. He felt that after all he had been through, he could live up to his dreams. Thugwane raced to the end winning the gold with a finishing time of 2 hours 12 minutes and 36 seconds. Although this was the closest marathon race ever, Josia finished with gold, the only gold received by a South African in these Olympics. Josia Thugwane was the first black South African to earn a gold medal in any Olympic Games. Josia dedicated this gold to his president Nelson Mandela. He knew this would not curb the nation's crime problem, but hope his victory would help boost the cause of black athletes in his native country.
Many athletes found inspiration in Gloria Estephan's song Reach. "If I could reach higher, just for my moment touch the skies, for this one moment in my life. I want to be stronger, know that I try my very best..." Those athletes who overcame so many difficulties and got their glory, are the real heroes, of their countries and the idea of Olympiads.
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