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During the recently held Olympic Games in France, Letsile Tebogo from Botswana won the gold medal on the 200 meters sprint. Young Letsile looks like a born runner, athletic, well-built, and – indeed - very young. In short, a wonderful athlete and what an achievement! Letsile now is, I’m sure, the pride of Botswana, a sparsely populated southern African country.

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Botswana is relatively prosperous compared with many poor sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. So, I wondered how these poorer countries had been doing at Olympic Games; after all, they don’t have the money nor the facilities rich countries avail of. And if rich countries would not have poached talented athletes from African countries, like my home country Holland did with Ethiopian-born Sifan Hasan, who won the women’s Marathon in Paris, they would have done even better during the Games.

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I undertook a ‘study’ to find out. Starting point is the 1960 Olympics in Italy, up to the recent Olympics in France, so the period 1960-2024. Why start at 1960? you may wonder. As of 1960, most former African colonies gained their independence; this is one reason why I chose 1960. The second reason is that, as a young boy, the 1960 Olympics were the first ones I watched on TV.

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I still remember West-German Armin Hary winning the 100-meter sprint, beating all other African American competitors. And there was the incredible Arican-American Wilma Rudolph! She won the women’s 100 and 200-meter gold medal, plus gold on the 4×100-meter relay. As a young girl Wilma had had polio, but she overcame it and became the world’s fastest sprinter. Cassius Clay (better known as Muhammad Ali) won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division. But the greatest sensation was Abebe Bikila, the Ethiopian marathon runner. He won gold, and he did so running barefoot – unheard of at the time.

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The United States usually win most Olympic medals. In the old days, the Soviet Union was America’s fiercest competitor. However, since the Soviet Union’s demise, China is trying to win more medals than the Americans. Indeed, the Olympics are all about winning, rather than participating, contrary to what Piere de Coubertin argued when he initiated the Games way back in 1896. Poor countries don’t stand a chance to beat America, China, or any other rich country to win gold, silver or bronze. This is what I thought; hence my little study, which is rather unscientific (for example not all Olympic Ganes since 1960 have been included).The point is that I was interested in trends, not in every possible detail.

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Ethiopia participated in the 1960 Olympics and, thanks to Abebe Bikila, won a gold medal. Ghana, who had gained independence in 1957, won a silver medal in the men’s light welter weight category. Total SSA score: 2 medals. In 1960, nine SSA countries participated. Three of them were then still colonies. Two had gained independence in the 19th century: Liberia(1847) and Sudan (1848). Two other countries South Africa and Southern Rhodesia were still Apartheid countries; for this reason I left them out of my medal counting until 1994 when the ANC formed South Africa’s first Apartheid-free government.

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As mentioned, I was interested in trends; therefore I felt the liberty to not include all Summer Olympics since 1960. I analysed how many medals SSA countries won during the Games of 1960, 1968, 1976, 1984, 1992, 2000, 2008, 2016, 2020, and the most recent one: 2024. The first trend concerns the number of medals won by SSA countries.

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The number of medals

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Conclusion: The trend is upwards: from 2 medals in 1960 to 28 in 2024. By the way, SSA countries did better in 2008 and 2016, when in both Games they won 36 medals! What explains the poor result in 1976: 0 medals? The simple reason is that SSA countries boycotted those Games as they protested against the participation of South Africa’s Apartheids regime.  

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I am sure you also want to know, what the distribution of gold, silver and bronze medals of each SSA country was. In the Annexe, I present the results. Altogether, SSA countries won 189 medals, of which 54 gold, 74 silver and 61 bronze medals.

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The countries winning most medals were:

Kenya: 77 medals,

Ethiopia: 37 medals,

Nigeria: 17 medals.

 

The number of participating countries

There is also a positive trend in the number of participating SSA countries, including the countries not winning any medals. In 1960 only 9 SSA countries participated, while during the recently held games in France, an impressive number 43 SSA countries participated. The table below shows the number of SSA participating countries over the entire period of my study 1960-2024.​Conclusion

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The reassuring overall conclusion is that since 1960, ever more SAA countries participated in the Summer Olympics, winning ever more medals. For participating SSA countries who never won any medal, Pierre de Coubertin’s bons mots are valid: it is more important to participate than to win. 

 

Annexe

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Peter de Haan                                                                                                                                                                                             August, 2024​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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