Small NOCs Cite Vision, Leadership Among Most Daunting Challenges

(ATR) Leaders of small National Olympic Committees, perhaps surprisingly, say money is not the biggest issue in preparing for an Olympic Games.

Around the Rings spoke with NOC leaders from El Salvador, the Czech Republic and Africa, who say more fundamental issues of sport and leadership pose the most daunting challenges.

Eduardo Palomo, president of the El Salvador Olympic Committee said that when he came into office in 2007, he set an ambitious target—the country’s first medal. But first, he had to change the culture of the EOC.

"I knew we needed to change an attitude," he said, first drawing criticism for wanting to plan the EOC activities with a long-term vision.

Palomo then set a task of identifying 55 athletes with Olympic potential, hoping for 30 to qualify for the Games. Detractors immediately said he was "off the marks" pursuing a medal with what some called "an unrealistic group of athletes," Palomo recalled.

"I said: ‘what’s wrong with that, that’s what every country goes for!’"

Over time, however, Palomo says "most" of the EOC’s stakeholders bought into his vision.

"When you see what the Games mean in the world, when you see what impact an athlete could have on the youth of El Salvador, how could you not want to get a medal?"

Robert Mutsauki, technical director of ANOCA, the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, says that many NOCs in Africa also suffer from a lack of long-term vision.

"It just seems like [NOCs] plans are activity-driven," he said. "As an organization you must have a clear vision. This is something that needs to be cultivated in some of the smaller NOCs."

To this end, ANOCA has annual grants of $55,000 for development-related activities to augment seminars, programs and other ways to strengthen NOCs.

But Mutsauki said "many NOCs are not making full use of these opportunities. They seem to be very busy but without anything meaningful coming out of it."

He offered a simple piece of advice to smaller NOCs: "they must know where their [athletic] potential lies and focus their resources on that."

Mutsautki also has experience at the ground level with NOCs, serving as secretary general for the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee before coming to ANOCA.

Petr Hrubec, secretary general for the Czech Olympic Committee, says for a small NOC, an injury or an athlete having a stretch of poor performance just prior to the Games can be devastating for medal potentials.

While he said he hopes Czechs will win five medals in London, there are "many" medal hopefuls. But chances have dimmed across several sports, with injuries striking a top athlete and judoka. Hrubec also pointed out that the Czech football team, ranked 18th, failed to qualify despite a strong showing in qualification tournaments, and Czech modern pentathletes have a recent string of spotty performances.

"If you asked me about modern pentathlon six months ago when they were world champions and European champions and really good, I would tell you six or seven [would qualify], and now it’s three."

These concerns, Hrubec added, are perennial worries, and NOCs can only do so much before the onus falls to athletes.

"In the end it’s on their ability, their psychological preparedness and their willingness to do their best," he said.

For London-specific issues, the NOCs had a diverse set of problems as well.

Hrubec said dealing with LOCOG officials was often frustrating.

Some of the more trying experiences came with LOCOG apparently having an unflinching rule on security personnel for heads of state, limiting the delegation to two security officials for Czech president Vaclav Klaus, who will attend the Games.After "a lot of correspondence and a lot of very negative responses", LOCOG relented and issued an acceptable number of credentials for Klaus’ security detail, says Hrubec.

He noted when dealing with LOCOG, he claimed he would have to follow up multiple times about queries, however, "when they want something they will send you three emails a day."

Perhaps most unsettlingly, he said, no Czech teams accepted LOCOG’s offer of a 10,000 British Pound grant for pre-Games training camp in the U.K. because the terms of using the money were "too restricted."

"With LOCOG and with some tasks it was really harder than with Beijing," he said, but added he continually felt as if LOCOG was cooperative.

London’s exorbitant prices were never far from anyone’s mind, either.

Palomo was resigned to London’s prices, saying some of the costs have been allayed by hospitable rowing clubs hosting a group of Salvadorian rowers already training in London.

"The key to this is we cannot forget we are an Olympic Family," he said. "And one thing that has to be done is to share Olympic training centers."

A worrisome development for African NOCs, Mutsauki said, came to light when ANOCA found out only one NOC had provided its chef de mission with a proper job description. ANOCA then organized a chefs de mission meeting so that all NOCs could be properly educated on the position.

"Each delegation in Africa should be well-managed and well-prepared and improve on our medals performance in Beijing."

While money may not be the biggest challenge for small NOCs, it's certainly a looming issue. All three eventually returned to the vital role money plays for NOCs in their interviews with ATR.

Hrubec says that there is "never enough" money, even with an annual budget of around $20 million for his Czech NOC.

In El Salvador, the NOC received $2.8 million divided among 39 federations. Funding for both the Czech and El Salvador NOCs came from private sponsorships and the government. But, Palomo says, "the political objectives are not aligned with sport objectives."

That issue is much greater in Africa, Mutsauki said, where NOCs are almost totally reliant on governments for funding.

"If you don’t have your own resources, it means you are weak and you may not be able to make all your decisions to achieve your objectives," he said.

The Czech Republic has a robust sponsorship program with multiple sponsors. In El Salvador, Palomo says telecommunications company Tigo enhanced its longstanding relationship with the NOC, launching an aggressive marketing campaign ahead of the Games, and Citibank also joined as a sponsor with its own campaign.

African NOCs, Mutsauki claimed, struggle to attract such deals because they routinely fail to demonstrate "value" for the companies. The root problem for this, too, is a lack of vision for NOCs.

Regardless of how much money is available, all resources were applied to preparing teams for the Games.

And the pressure may be highest on African Olympians, according to Mutsauki.

"We want to go to London as one team. While we are representing our countries, we are also representing our continent. We are now Team Africa."

Despite London being just days away, NOCs are already focusing on Rio de Janeiro 2016 and well beyond.

Hrubec acknowledges for first-time Olympians, the pressure of the Games means "they will never do their best."

Palomo says he’s asking all his athletes to keep thinking about the Olympics and not view London as the end of their competitive careers. "We’re still close to a medal," he said.

But for him, the biggest challenges ahead for sport in El Salvador are stopping the flow of smart coaches out of the country, hindering the development of talent, and compulsory physical education in schools.

"Do we have talent? Hell yeah!

"Can we all agree in our country that having kids practice sports--it’s an undeniable right. That I think is the challenge. Competition shouldn’t be seen as something evil."

He rattled off a host of societal ills plaguing the central American country and said the Olympics could be a "light for the youth of the country."

African NOCs, Mutsauki said, must continue to grapple with their own shortcomings and improve the depth of sporting talent within their countries moving forward.

Mutsauki distilled his sentiments for African NOCs, but they could be applicable to all NOCs.

"We must learn from the Games," he declared. "We cannot make the same mistakes and make the same excuses."

Reported by Ed Hula III

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.