BENEATH THE GOLD RUSH
WHY COLOMBIA’S TOP- LEVEL SUCCESS HIDES PROBLEMS BACK HOME
Awonderful year for Colombian cycling culminated on December 4 at the Congress building in central Bogotá, where Luís Fernando Saldarriaga, the coach of the world-beating Colombia Es Pasión team (think: Nairo Quintana, Esteban Chaves, Sergio Luís Henao, Sergio Higuita), received the Simón Bolívar medal for services to his country. 2020 could be even better, with Egan Bernal defending his Tour de France title and 22 Colombians in the WorldTour peloton.
Much is sometimes made of the political benefits to be reaped from elite sporting success, ranging from the cold, hard cash to be made hosting international tournaments, to the more nebulous, feel-good factor said by some to increase national productivity. Wherever you stand on such things, it is hard to imagine that a decade of cycling success has nothing to do with Colombia’s extraordinary national turnaround. After all, the country has come a long way since the late 1990s, when US anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey styled it a failed state. Demobilisations in 2004-6 and 2016 saw the paramilitary groups and the FARC guerrillas disband. These days, its wealthy, western cities, dreamy landscapes and picturepostcard beaches are crammed with tourists.
Global TV coverage of stage-race victories and podiums, sprint successes, even the first Colombian monument (through Chaves at Il Lombardia in 2016) have made cycling a key form of Colombian ‘soft power’ - a term coined in the late 1980s by American political scientist Joseph Nye to denote a form of noncoercive power that would include sporting accomplishments that fire the imagination.
You might think that cycling has become a national priority: something supported institutionally for the benefits it brings, and rewarded with abundant funding for its successes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Four major national teams – Manzana Postobón, Coldeportes Zenú (formerly ColombiaClaro, the feeder for the defunct Team Colombia), Coldeportes Strongman and GW Shimano – folded during 2019, with two more – AV Villas and Betplay - in the balance. The national anti-doping laboratory has been suspended since February 2017, and, with 19 pending doping cases, Colombia has more than any other country. In January, the national newspaper ElEspectador even published a report headlined “Colombian cycling in intensive care”.
Consulting the table of ‘factors contributing to elite success’ identified in sports sociologists Barrie Houlihan and Mick Green’s book Comparative EliteSportDevelopment, Colombian cycling’s shortcomings loom into view: financial support, talent development, comprehensive planning, lifestyle support, effective systems for monitoring progress, well-structured specific facilities, competitive programmes structured around preparing for international events… None are in place. Of the country’s leading coaches and administrators, Saldarriaga is currently out of work, Pablo Mazuera (Bernal’s first team manager) is working in mountain biking, and former national selector Jenaro Leguízamo is working privately.
The news is not all bleak. Three new U23 teams are being set up for 2020: a Sports Ministry-backed Talentos Colombia, the United Arab Emirates funded UAE Colombia, and the private CM Benros team. But teams – especially private, foreign-run ones run by sports agents – will not solve the structural weaknesses. In men like Saldarriaga, Leguízamo and Mazuera, Colombia has the talent to build and maintain a truly world-class sporting system. The question is, will politics and short-termism allow them to be deployed for the good of the country and the sport?