Olympic Games opportunity diminishing

Botswana National Olympic Committee’s (BNOC) wild card athletes are currently facing an uncertain future on whether they will make it to the July Olympic Games in Tokyo. BNOC has three athletes who have been included for a tripartite placement (wildcard/ universality). The trio are Matshediso Ebudilwe of cycling, Magdeline Moyengwa of weightlifting and Karabo Kula of Taekwondo. Initially, there was hope that the athletes will qualify individually like all athletes but when their chances of qualifying diminished, the local Olympic Committee applied for wildcard placement for them. However, with time fast approaching to the Olympic showpiece, it seems their chances of going to the games under the wild card are also slowly fading since the three players are not active as of now.

For the trio to be awarded some places under the wild card they have to be very much active attending tournaments and accumulating enough points which will propel them up in the rankings of their respective sporting codes globally. As much as BNOC continues supporting them with the hope that any of them will snatch a place at the games, it is not enough since the athletes are confined locally without any competitions to attend. This has put the local trio in a bad situation compared to their counterparts abroad who are applicants for the wild card slots too.

“Submissions were made for these three to be given these slots but they compete with other countries. We await the decision on our applications which will happen after the closing dates of qualifications. For them to stand a chance they should keep competing and improving their rankings as they are also considered. If there were competitions available they would have attended; those that were planned for were cancelled. As of now they get support like all other athletes attempting to qualify and they are funded to train and attend competitions, “said BNOC acting Chief Executive Officer, Wedu Motswetla. With qualification for weightlifting ending on the 30th of April, eight athletes will receive the tripartite commission invitations. With four slots reserved for ladies, it will be a mountain to climb for Moyengwa to be among the chosen ones considering she has been inactive for long. To make matters worse for her, most of the weightlifting championships or qualifiers which were scheduled for early this year were cancelled or postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore with her rankings not looking good globally, Moyengwa is very distant from making it to the Olympics through the wild card.

With rankings playing a pivotal role in being granted wild card, local taekwondo ace, Kula is not looking good either. The last time she was in a competition was last year in February during the Turkey Open. Unlike in weightlifting, the 18 year old Kula is wrestling for only two slots allocated to ladies under the wild card. There are also requirements to meet such as having advanced to quarterfinal of continental Taekwondo championships and medal winner in any competition enlisted in World Taekwondo calendar between May 2018 and April 2020.Most importantly she should have ranked within top 20 at least once between May 2018 and April 2020. Nonetheless, with age on their side, BNOC can still build up a team around them for the Paris 2024 games.