Ghana swimming is among the top sport disciplines that’s fast rising, for the last five years.
Before this evolution, Ghana swimming was mostly a quarterly competition festival – my club begins planning months before, with excursions and sight seeing all factored into it – it was a get-away for most of the families.
Since this season started last year October, we come to Accra every month for meet. This though costly, has had a positive impact on my program, and my club’s performance.
Swimming is a very important social development tool in the hands of its stewards, wherever it is practiced – aesthetics; grace; grit; achievement; personal development; individual assessment; social cohesion; social bonding; camaraderie, and more. Swimming as I have come to know it, is a driver of academic excellence and prowess.
Swimming as a business has supported many young individuals – like myself – to afford the opportunity of building brands or clubs, all in a bid to bite a piece of the pie that this provides. There is no doubt that Swimming, Ghana Swimming has provided platforms for a few – internationally, locally, regionally, and within the swimming communities.
However, that notwithstanding, this seeming smooth movement has produced a huge existential threat, which is silently loud – and threatens the very structure of Swimming as practiced in Ghana. This threat is what lies ahead for swimmers from here – should they continue swimming! This threat is not new, but it’s now frightening!
Remember Swimming has metamorphosed greatly – and it looks well scheduled, at least, for a country that is now beginning to accept extracurricular activities, and more importantly to follow calendar throughout the year. The escape into this robust structure means one thing; whiles children swim year-on-year, transitioning through the age categories, what are the buyback benefits for life after these sacrifices? Where do they go from here – should children continue to swim at the top level?
For most parents, it may not be the financial sacrifices for trips, new suits, swim camps, extra arrangements – these are costs they would have borne anyways – probably, for something or experiences that offer little in value going forward – but where will my child end up, should they continue to high performance.
Take Ghana’s flagship, most dominant project in World Swimming; the revered Abeiku Gyekye Jackson, who, in any swimmer’s [Coaches’, and Parents’] wildest dreams aspire to reach; Olympian, World Aquatics development benefactor, national athlete, well respected in the swimming community, made friends with big names, and many more. What opportunities can be explored from this – as a case in point – think of the Adam Peaty’s AP Series. British Swimming in collaboration with Adam’s team have carved out such flashy project to bring to bear the opportunities and prospects of competitive swimming. What career development platforms won’t cherish the immense experience of such an athlete? What school projects can the federation, in partnership with Ghana Education Service, for example, promote the role of extracurricular activities and what height this can take you? What about sponsorship and ambassadorial deals? I have not seen a country’s athlete at top tier, with such prospects both for the federation, and the athlete, not supported by at least the sport federation to explore deals of mutual benefit.
Consider our bright swimmers who came to limelight in recent times, and have had their progress cut short due to School. What then? Continue Swimming or not? High performance or hang in there? High performance is a very difficult uninterrupted road that if cut short, will only take an extraordinary mental fortitude to take again. So, they tag along with a feeling of guilt weighing down on them as they post ‘slower times’ than their juniors – who are very much – racing into that conundrum.
This is the time we need strong leadership – not just that but critical thinking leaders – in our federation, club system, associations, to tackle this existential threat, and open this beautiful sport of ours, so we can properly connect to the global community and explore the benefits.
This piece is not to point out problems and profess knee-jerk solutions to a problem that cannot be done away with simple words – it is to point out to all of us the silent yearns of Coaches, Parents, and Swimmers who are sold out to the sport – yet cannot see it in their futures!
It is to show us we need each other for the future of what we do – to respect the contributions from every stakeholder – and actually cause a real change – not to seem, wording away every concern a stakeholder voices.
It is to prick us to begin to think inclusively, selflessly, for this beautiful community to continue to thrive, support, and grow beyond adrenaline-dopamine rush.
Coach Gyamfi,
African Sharks Swim Team