I had that sneaky feeling that journalists who covered the Beijing Olympics were so overwhelmed that they ran short of the necessary vocabulary to describe what the Chinese presented to the world as hosts of the 29th Olympiad. Beautiful,awesome,spectacular and fantastic were the commonest adjectives one could hear on Radio and TV throughout the Games as the Chinese dazzled the world with high tech sports facilities and an amazing opening and closing ceremony akin to the science fiction James Bond movies of old.

I pity my colleagues especially in the print media for the tough assignment they faced in trying to find the appropriate words so that readers could paint a true picture of the Beijing extravaganza. How I envy the TV commentators. They had a field day because the pictures spoke for themselves and all they needed were a few exclamations here and there.

If the opening ceremony was spectacular the closing programme was awesome and really touching. You could see a happy band of the youth anxious to demonstrate that the world could be a happy place to live in if mankind so wishes. This must be a shame to the evil minded suicide bombers who take delight in spilling innocent blood for reasons best known to themselves. The Chinese who constitute almost a quarter of the world population have for the past three weeks really depicted the happy side of life and all potential suicide bombers are put on notice to make the world a happy habitat whether poor or rich.

At this stage I would like to pay my sincerest tribute to former US President Richard Nixon whose monumental “ping- pong diplomacy” succeeded in bringing the then reticent Chinese among the comity of nations. It had been pure injustice that with such a large chunk of the world at their disposal China was not part of the Olympic family. It is to the eternal credit of Richard Nixon that his overtures gradually changed the attitude of China to life and in 1984 they put in a maiden appearance at the Los Angeles Olympics. They were however not all that impressive but they must have learnt a lot from both the organisation and the performance of the host sportsmen and sportswomen.

Any wonder after 28 years in the wilderness China have both excelled in hosting the quadrennial world sports festival and winning the competition to boot. China did not have to shout on roof tops that they were going to host the Games and win but by dint of hard preparations and less talk they are now the talk of the world.

It is hoped that Ghana would take a cue from the Chinese and go back to the basics of catching young talents. The schools sports programmes must be given fresh impetus up to the University level. The present generation must be told that all work and no play make Kwame a dull boy. There appears to be too much emphasis on academic pursuits these days and the youth must be encouraged to accept the fact that one can safely combine books and sports. Ask Presidential hopefuls Nana Akufo-Addo and Prof Atta- Mills. I am told in the colonial days in a certain top secondary school in Accra you could be failed in your exams if you did not take part in any extra curricula activities

This may be to the extreme but it tells you how important sports and games play in our daily lives. The sages say in Latin "mens sana in corpore sano" translated into English means "a sound mind in a sound body".

Ghana’s ace sprinter Vida Anim gave Ghana a bad image by her unsporting conduct in refusing at the last minute to run the 200 metres race at the Beijing Olympics when she had been duly registered. The young lady had promised to drop an earlier threat of a boycott but she suddenly changed her mind and puzzled Olympic officials continued announcing her name on the stadium loud speakers till they gave up and the event started with her lane being declared vacant

It was learnt later that Vida was nursing an injury. This was confirmed by G.B. Awuakye, Chief Sports Development Officer who told reporters that Vida had been advised after undergoing a test not to take part in the competition due to a muscle tear. Mr Awuakye did not make it clear when the test was made. He appears to be an accessory and he owes an explanation to the good people of Ghana why he did not inform the Games organizers of Vida’s so called injury for the necessary deletion of her name from the list of competitors.

It is my submission that Awuakye and Vida have conspired to give Ghana a bad image at the Olympics quite similar to what happened at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 when Ghana messed up in the men’s sprints relay final. What happened was that Eric Nkansah had been injured in the semis and Ghana wanted to replace him with Christaian Nsiah but Ghanaian officials were told that apart from time lapse, Nsiah was technically disqualified because he had previously been substituted.

This simple rule was surprisingly ignored and Nsiah was added to the team much to the consternation of Games officials who insisted that Nsiah could not run. The Ghana team stubbornly stood their grounds and in the glare of world-wide television coverage they delayed the start of the race. Indeed Olympic security officers had to be brought in to stop the rot before the Ghana quartet comprising, Abu Duah,Albert Agyemang, Aziz Zakari and Christian Nsiah finally left the pitch in a leisurely walk around the track

Back home an embarassed Sports Minister E.T.Mensah ordered the then Chief Development Officer George Dasoberi to probe the incident. Not much was heard about the probe except that the chief athletics coach Rose Hart was transferred to the Western Region and she resigned in protest

Earlier in Atlanta there had been some petty embarrassing episodes surrounding the Ghana team which luckily escaped international exposure. Fred Adongo, the marathon runner had been disqualified because his qualifying time submitted by Ghana did not match the official records at the Games secretariat. Walker Vincent Assumang had also been disqualified because it was pointed out that all that he had been doing in Ghana was demonstration events and there was nothing on record about his activities as a competitive walker.

The last but not the least episode was that 400m runner Mercy Addy and heavyweight boxer Illiadi Alhassan bolted from the Games Village not to be seen again

Indiscipline among Ghanaian athletes seems to be endemic. At the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 two UK based athletes Ernest Obeng and Fred Kwasi Owusu were sacked on the eve of the competition and their entries withdrawn for staying out from camp for two days without permission.. Obeng’s argument was that no rule existed that an athlete asked permission to go out and no curfew had been established by any official

The most recent Ghanaian Olympian to show indiscipline was footballer Sulley Muntari who was sacked from the Athens Olympics in 2004 by Coach Mariano Barreto for breaking camping rules

Back at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 there was a slight embarrassment for Ghana when the women’s table tennis doubles pair of Abena Opokua and Helen Amankwah were disqualified in their match against Romania’s Otilia Badesco and Maria Bosoku for using unauthorised attire.

The records depict that the first major indiscipline by Ghanaian Olympians occurred at the 1968 Mexico Olympics during an ill tempered football match between the Black Stars and Israel. Ghana lost the match 5-3 and a stern French referee Michel Kitabajan

Sacked George Alhassan and Jones Attuquayefio who were involved in a free for all fight midway through the second half of the match..They were banned for two matches. Later skipper Addo Odametey and Abukari Gariba were suspended for six months each. Odametey was alleged to have jumped on the referee and snatched his whistle while Abukari. booted him.

This cannot be said to be a tidy record for Ghana’s Olympic.Team and we would need to clean the stables. Lets start with Vida Anim

Despite the hullabaloo about the exploits of Jamaican super sprinter Usain Bolt at the ongoing Beijing Olympics my favourite star at the Games is Argentinian ball juggler Lionel Messi. I admire him for the spirit of Olympism and nationalism he displayed when his employers Barcelona FC wanted to stop him from going to Beijing. He ignored the hard cash being dangled in his face and opted for an Olympic medal

Fredy Baron de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics would be happy to learn in his grave that the torch he lit in 1896 is still burning and we have young super stars like Messi who have imbibed the spirit of olympism and will definitely be a fine example for the sporting youth to emulate.

Messi gave of his best in the crucial semi-final of the football competition against perennial rivals Brazil and he contributed a lot in the 3-0 demolition of their South American counterparts to set the stage for a titanic final "replay" against African giants Nigeria, gold medalists in Atlanta 1996,where it was another Nigeria- Argentina affair.

Messi’s love for the Olympics is similar to the passion with which the Williams sisters from the USA were pictured adoring their gold medals in the women’s tennis doubles but sorry to state that it is in sharp contrast with the attitude of Ghana’s over confident sprinter Vida Anim who has devalued Olympism and is holding the whole nation to ransom.

After being eliminated from the 100 metres heats Vida suddenly decided to find an excuse why she should not compete in the 200m. She blamed team officials for unpaid allowances and no amount of persuasion could let her change her stand.

Curiously the young lady appeared to have the backing of the chairman of the Ghana Athletics Association Sandy Osei Agyeman himself former athlete in Ghana’s 1972 Munich Games and 1976 Montreal Games squad. Hear him " Lack of financial support for Ghanaian athletes based outside has always been a source of frustration to them .I call for a positive review of the situation to enable the athletes to have the needed peace of mind to train and give of their best at all times"

It is not too clear who the GAA boss had in mind to implement the so called positive review and it would be interesting to know his work schedule as athletics boss. It is learnt that many Ghanaian athletes living abroad complain they incur a great deal of expenses training on their own before flying down to tournament venues. May be the chairman is not privy to this information. Or maybe the athletes are making up stories and they want to be pampered. This blame game must stop somewhere otherwise Ghana will find it difficult to produce a mega star like Usain Bolt whose sensational record shattering 9.69 secs in the 100m will definitely continue to be the topic for discussion long after the Beijing Games

I am normally a very optimistic person but for once I am not too enthused about Bolt’s achievement. There have been far too many controversies surrounding the men’s 100 metres race at the Olympics and this makes me rather apathetic I was right in the thick of the crowd. at the Seoul Olympic Stadium in 1988 when Jamaica born Canadian Ben Johnson ran that astonishing race to set a record in the 100m only to be disgraced later as a drug cheat."From grace to grass in 9.83 secs" was what a section of the media tagged Ben Johnson. Some people went to the ridiculous length of even disputing Ben Johnson’s nationality. Suddenly he was Jamaican and not Canadian, some people with no scruples suggested.

So Congrats, Mr. Bolt, for the wonderful race. You took it so easy that with 10 metres to go you started celebrating. That’s great. Ben Johnson did something quite similar by raising his hands five metres to the finishing line leaving the great Carl Lewis gasping for breath. I only hope history does not repeat itself Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

The Olympic Games is not a lottery, in other words it is not a game of chance. It is for sportsmen and sportswomen who have trained seriously over the years and they shall be honoured with medals.

I have attended four Olympic Games, twice as an active sports journalist covering the Games for Ghana’s biggest national newspaper The Daily Graphic and two times as Press Attache for the Ghana Olympic team. I have experienced life both at the press centre and the Olympic Village and I can say with a fair amount of authority that there are two categories of sportsmen and sportswomen who make it to the Olympics. There are those who aim for medals and those who believe in the adage of just taking part for its fun.

It is difficult to surmise that Ghana belongs to the second category but if after proudly winning silver 48 years ago at the Rome Olympics in 1960,Ghana can only contend with three bronze in 10 subsequent Olympics the nation could easily fall into the category of those who only add to the numbers.

It may not be a fair categorization because I know for a fact that on several occasions enough preparations had been made towards these quadrennial Games. Series of high profile national trials had been organized. There had been a number of foreign training stints especially for the athletes and boxers and the then Ghana Olympic Committee had been in the forefront organizing national fund raising events with catchy slogans to whip up national enthusiasm.

The 1988 Seoul Olympics, the 1992 Barcelona Games and Atlanta 1996 for example had massive national support and even though the inspiring slogan of "Give Ghana Gold, Get Ghana There" could not yield any medals there was some sort of national awareness that the Olympics were near and Ghana would be there.

But what did we see this year. The pre-season athletics trials were turned into unnecessary acrimony and exchange of words among sports officials with mushroom radio stations stoking the embers with provocative comments. My verdict is that the token team of three track and field performers Ghana picked for the Beijing Games was definitely the result of lack of corporation among officialdom with the Olympic Committee looking on seemingly unconcerned.

Sprinter Aziz Zakari’s early exit was predictable. You could sense that the two year ban for drug abuse has taken some sting out of the young man. Much was however expected from lone lady sprints queen Vida Anim but the obvious lack of technical guidance sapped her energy as the competition progressed and she fell at the quarter stage of the 100m event. The usually large entries for the sprints means that there could be as many as three heats in a day and one would have to pace oneself with a technique for survival. Vida was handicapped in this respect.

She clocked 11.47 secs for second place in the first heats and showed much more improvement in the second round clocking 11.32 secs to place third.. This fast pace might have sapped her energy and she actually placed last in the semis with a rather slow time of 11.5 secs.

Frustrated Vida was heard on BBC blaming Ghanaian officials for lack of financial support for her and threatening to boycott the 200m. It is unfortunate that she has joined the acrimony brewing in the athletics fold. It is hoped some higher authority will step in and stop the rot before it becomes cancerous. It is the feeling in sporting circles that the Olympic Committee has overstayed its welcome and should be revamped immediately after the Beijing Games to inject more dynamism in the Olympic family.

Many observers believe that if the Olympic Committee had been more purposeful the six amateur boxers who had gone through hectic African qualifying series under their unsung Cuban Coach Roberto Ibamez would have fared better than they did. A critical observation was that the boxers appeared to lack stamina. The Cuban Coach should also be made to provide answers why his boxers were all fighting like professionals always aiming for the kill with heavy wild swinging punches. I don’t share the view that light-heavyweight Bastie Samir’s third round knock-out win over Nigeria’s Dauda Izobo might have sent wrong signals to his colleagues to go in for the kill.

It is worth noting that all the early losers, Bantamweight Issa Samir, featheweight Prince Octopus Djanie, light-welterweight Sam Kotey Neequaye and middleweight Ahmed Sasraku all believed in hard hitting. Native intelligence needs to be applied at times. When Bastie Samir’s aggressive style failed to help in the second fight against Washington Silva of Brazil one thought light-flyweight Manyo Plange would take a cue in his fight against another Brazilian .Paulo Carvallo and fight for points instead of the short route but he committed the same blunder.

By the third round the Brazilian had piled enough points 17-12 to inch for victory. No amount of Manyo Plange’s aggression in the final round could save him and the Brazilian had five more points against two by the Ghanaian to earn a comfortable 21-12 victory.to complete the elimination of Ghanaian boxers from the Games.

The Daily Graphic Correspondent in Beijing described Manyo Plange’s loss as "the most decisive defeat of any of the Ghanaian boxers in the Games". I hope this is not going to be a forerunner of many more scathing reports about our boxers to the Games. I will mount a one man crusade to stop such worn out post mortems on the performance of Ghanaian sportsmen and sportswomen after every major international competition.

I submit that the low publicity given to the boxers and athletes prior to the Games must continue. Let them mourn their sad exit in tranquility. The pet topic of a coach for the senior national football team Black Stars must go on unabated especially now that another Serbian has been named.

In the meantime those docile sports officials who are feeling so comfortable in their seats and are turning back the wheels of progress in Ghana sports must be prepared to face the wrath of the sporting public sooner than later. They must be told in plain language that the Olympic Games and for that matter all international competitions are not lotteries and we must prepare fully to make our presence felt. The huge stadiums in the cities must be put to other uses. They are not for football alone.

Despite the worldwide acclamation for the splendid opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, the perfect organization and state of the art sports facilities some nitwits who have no sense of decorum may wish to spoil the fun. This is the reason why I back the organizers in their bid to tighten security

A section of the usually fastidious mass media has already expressed concern about the emphasis on security that may stifle the down to earth humour associated with the Olympic Games. In fact some argue that the deployment of 100,000 anti terrorism personnel and the 300,000 surveillance cameras are rather on the high side. I beg to differ.

History should be our guide. It was these same complaints by a section of the media during the 1972 Munich Olympics that led to the relaxation of security that culminated in those Palestinian bandits sneaking into the Olympic Village to murder 11 Israeli athletes. The Germans had placed some restrictions on the media’s access to the Games Village hosting the athletes.

The media complained bitterly why they should be impeded from getting access to the athletes. Entry to the Games Village was subsequently relaxed and with the carnival atmosphere around those Palestinian rogues took advantage of the situation. In the wee hours of the day, wearing track suits they pretended to be some errant athletes returning from a disco outing, scaled the wall and succeeded in seizing 11 Israeli athletes. The rest is history. And it is this history that has put all subsequent Olympic Games organizers on the alert. From Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 to Athens 2004, security has been paramount. Beijing should be no exception.

The Beijing organizers know there is a risk that the emphasis on security and controls on journalists could squeeze the fun out of the Games but as the late International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage declared at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Olympic fraternity must not succumb to terrorists and every effort must be made to ensure a trouble free Olympic Games at all times.. I submit that Beijing is on the right track and they must be allowed to have a successful Olympiad to reap the gains of six years hard preparation and toil.

The Beijing Games is historic in many respects. The presence of many high profile heads of state at the space age opening ceremony added dignity to the occasion. It was quite emotional watching US President George Bush and President Kufuor of Ghana waving to an enthusiastic Olympic Games crowd for the last time in their official capacities as heads of government. The two gentlemen end their terms of office at the end of 2008.

It is not known whether President Bush had time to meet his Olympic contingent in Beijing but President Kufuor did. In a chat with the team comprising six boxers and three athletes Kufuor advised them not to suffer from stage fright because the other competitors were not super humans. “Know that the whole nation is behind you and that you qualified for the Games on merit meaning that you are competent to win medals” he said.

Perhaps not too comfortable with the small size of the contingent he expressed the hope that the days were coming when Ghana could send about a 200 member contingent to the Olympics.

It is on record that the 2008 contingent is the smallest since Ghana first took part in Olympic Games in Helsinki Finland in 1952 with six athletes.

The athletics team is made up of male sprinters Aziz Zakari (100m) Seth Amoh (200m) and lady sprinter Vida Anim(100m)

Both Aziz Zakari and Vida Anim were at the 2004 Athens Olympics and incidentally both of them crashed out with muscle pulls- Zakari in the 100m finals and Vida in the

second round heats. It is hoped they would show a much more improved performance this year.

Ghana has a proud record of one silver and two Olympic bronze medals and this year’s well prepared team could follow that enviable tradition.

An unsung Cuban coach who goes by the name Roberto Ibamez has taken the Ghanaian boxers through systematic training that saw them shining brilliantly in the African qualifying series in Namibia. After this the boxers had an intensive training tour of Cuba. Unfortunately not much publicity has been given to the exploits of these boxers The local media might have lost interest in the Beijing Olympics because their favourite football teams Black Satellites and Black Queens failed to qualify for the Games.

I have a sneaky feeling that the six man boxing team comprising lightweight Manyo Plange, light-welterweight Albert Neequaye, Middleweight Ahmed Sasraku, Light-middleweight Samir Bastir, welterweights Samir Issah and Prince Octopus Djanie are capable of giving Ghana some medals.

I can see in my minds eye the media giving the Cuban coach all the accolades after the Olympics when his boxers march to the Castle to receive honours from President Kufuor. And I can bet with my last cedi that for once the search for a coach for the senior national football team Black Stars will take a backstage.

You are welcome to the Beijing Olympics.