13 Jun 2018

Botswana will contest with Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia to host the Youth Olympic Games in 2022. A delegation from the International Olympic Committee(IOC)  has already sent a team to Botswana to evaluate the prospects of the country hosting the Games.  Reporter Anastacia Sibanda argues why Botswana should host the Games.

First, for a country to host the Games of this magnitude there are certain issues that are taken into consideration, like security, hospitality and infrastructure.
In terms of security, the 2022 visitors can assured that their security is guaranteed.

A report released recently by the International Police Science Association (IPSA) and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) ranked Botswana number one in best police service in Africa.

According to the report, Botswana’s composite score for all indicators was 0.6876.

The highest ranking country in the index was Singapore with a score of 0.8978 while the lowest was Nigeria with 0.2554.

In terms of hospitality, Gaborone has an array of hotels like Phakalane Golf Estate Hotel Resort, Avani Hotel and Resort, Cresta Lodge, Cresta President Hotel and Grand Palm Hotel, which have the capacity to accommodate all the visitors with the help of other lodges in the city, while the University of Botswana can be used as the athletes’ village.

Turning to infrastructure, Botswana has proven that it has facilities to host world class events, and it was tried and tested during the 2nd African Youth Games in 2014 where around 54 countries and 2 500 athletes competed in 21 sporting codes for 10 days.

Thus, Botswana is ready to host the 2022 Youth Olympic Games, although some facilities like UB Stadium, Wharic Park will need to be renovated.

However, a new shooting range will have to be built. Meanwhile, Botswana National Olympic Committee president, Botsang Tshenyego said should the country not be awarded the opportunity, the nation should still celebrate the fact that the IOC considered Botswana amongst the top four out of 54 African countries. Ends