16 Aug 2017

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Thapelo Olopeng said they intend to start preparations for Tokyo 2020 as early as this year.

He told BOPA in an interview that he had communicated with all sport administrators to treat athletes with the knowledge that they were not competing for leisure.

“We are now at a professional stage. We have to make sure that we treat them professionally.

We have to make sure we know what they eat and our medical team has to be always there to support athletes, even outside competitions,” he said.

Furthermore, Olopeng said he was of the view that time was now for the country to bench-mark, adding that Batswana athletes could not be competing with top athletes from United States of

America and other countries, without knowing exactly what it took to get to that level.

He said in Botswana sport was still administered at amateur level while performing nations were highly professionalised because of their population and the industry.

Olopeng said other countries had private sector funding sport whereas in Botswana it was still government- driven adding that he wanted to lure the private sector to assist so as to emulate other countries.

“I am happy though that our private sector is willing and what we have to do as sport administrators is to put our house in order because they have been helping us in many aspect as far as sport in concerned,” he said.

On other issue, Minister Olopeng said his dream for Tokyo 2020 was for Botswana to win a gold medal stating that he was confident because Botswana had great potential in sport.

He said he was aware that there was not much time left before Tokyo 2020, hence he insisted that preparations start as early as possible.

He said like Rio games, government would make sure that funds were released to start preparations for Tokyo in earnest.

“I take it that all will be responsible with the little they will be given. We have a tight budget. You know the President and Cabinet are willing to assist but our deficit is growing and to increase the budget would be increasing the deficit.

For the country to run for two to three years without a balance, it’s a risky and can collapse the economy,” he said.Ends