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Africa and The Olympics: Who’s Watching?

Africa and The Olympics: Who’s Watching?

Most African countries don’t lend themselves to participation in winter sports because there’s hardly any snow, and no Winter Olympic medals have ever been won by an athlete from a tropical country.

But Africans are thinking about the Olympics and even more plan on watching the Winter Games than watched the Summer Olympics in London, according to a GeoPoll survey.

At the opening ceremony today, three African flags will fly in the parade. Zimbabwe, Togo and Morocco will be represented at the games.

It’s a first for Zimbabwe, and all eyes will be on 20-year-old Zimbabwean Luke Steyn, who plans to compete in the slalom and giant slalom.

The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy marked the Winter Games debut for Ethiopia and Madagascar. The 2010 Games in Vancouver, Canada saw Ghana’s debut.

Denver, Colo.-based market research company GeoPoll surveyed 221 people in Kenya between Jan. 13 and Jan. 15, 2014. Respondents were 67-percent male, and 70 percent of the sample was less than 34 years old.

GeoPoll learned that 42 percent of respondents had watched the Summer Olympics in London, and an even higher percent, 46 percent, said they planned to watch the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Despite the fact that no Kenyans are participating, just 14 percent of respondents said they were definitely not planning to watch it. The rest weren’t sure.

Of those who said they wouldn’t be watching, 50 percent said it was because of a lack of access to the broadcast, and 31 percent said they had other plans.

GeoPoll used mobile SMS technology for the poll, and paid respondents a airtime commission of 50 cents (USD) for participating.

GeoPoll said it commissioned the survey on its own, gathering information from a relatively small group just in Kenya, as a way to gauge the interest of some people regarding the Olympics.

This is part of the company’s ongoing work of administering surveys to certain groups to get a better idea of what individuals in developing countries are thinking about global events, according to GeoPoll.

“One of our core visions and beliefs at GeoPoll is that we could change the world by finding
out the opinions and attitudes of the ‘unwebbed’ citizens of the world,” said Steve Gutterman, president of GeoPoll, in an email to AFKInsider. “This finding demonstrates just how much we don’t know about significant portions of our population. We’re excited to find out more.”

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founding father of the modern Games, said “It is not the winning, but the taking part that counts.”

Few exemplify that spirit better than Africa’s small collection of Winter Olympians, for whom participation is a victory in itself, according to a YahooSports report.

Here’s how Africa has participated in recent Winter Olympic Games:

Cameroon: 2002
Ethiopia: 2006–2010
Ghana: 2010
Kenya: 1998–2006
Madagascar: 2006
Senegal: 1984, 1992–1994, 2006–2010
Togo: 2014
Zimbabwe: 2014

In Zimbabwe, snowfall has only been recorded once — a light sprinkling back in 1960 caused by a freak storm, according to YahooSports. That didn’t stop Zimbabwean skier Luke Steyn, 20, from qualifying for Sochi.

Steyn will be Zimbabwe’s first-ever Winter Olympian, and traveled around Europe, driving more than 1,800 miles between events in order to earn the points needed to qualify for Sochi.

He was backed by the recently formed Zimbabwean snow sports council and its
national sports committee helped him negotiate some of the political and bureaucratic red
tape that is part of competing at the Games, YahooSports reports.

Robel Teklemariam moved from Ethiopia to the U.S. at age 9 and had no formal backing when he started to pursue his Olympic dream. He was inspired by the movie “Cool Runnings,” about the Jamaican bobsled team, to compete in the Games.

Teklemariam spent thousands of dollars on phone calls trying to get approval from Ethiopian authorities before finally getting permission to qualify for the 2006
Torino Games, where he placed 83rd out of 99 competitors in the 15K. He returned to the Vancouver Olympics four years later, placing 93rd out of 95.

His efforts helped raise awareness of winter sports in Africa, and now some national Olympic federations are taking a greater interest in the Winter Games, YahooSports reports.

“It makes me happy because sports is not a thing where it’s just certain countries and
certain people,” Teklemariam told YahooSports. “Sports is a thing where if you have passion and you want to do it then you could have the chance to represent your country.

“When I see those athletes I am very understanding of what their feelings are like. I know
that in some form I know I’m a part of that equation in there.”