CEO of the Ghana Athletics Association, Bawa Fuseini, has indicated the country loses its top athletes to regular employment systems since they lack necessary support after college education.
Many promising athletes from Ghana's tertiary institutions earn scholarships to some of America's top universities where they gain the opportunity to further their careers through school support.
However following completion of collegiate education, former student-athletes who are unable to land support for a professional career, take up careers in more formal or even informal sectors.
This, according to Fuseini, is behind Ghana's failure to annex medals at the Olympics and World Championships since many top athletes 'give up' after college education.
Currently, Ghana has a 'golden era' of athletes; Benjamin Azamati, Joseph Paul Amoah, Deborah Acquah, and Abigail Kwarteng, setting ablaze track and field. The quartet have set new national records in the current NCAA season and with this year's World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games fast approaching, Fuseini has urged the government to be proactive to help the athletes annex Gold medals for the country.
"Most of the athletes after completing school, stop sports because they need to feed themselves and pay bills. They can't use the small money they earn to pay for bills, pay for training facilities and coaches. That's why many [Ghanaian] athletes in the US don't continue after completing school.
"But if you look at other countries, like what Nigeria did with Blessing Okagbare, who was supported with $120,000 by the Nigerian government when she completed school. That was the seed money she used and look at how she has propelled Nigerian athletics.
"If we as a state can also support these our athletes to prevent them from working, by providing them with 5,000 a month and say 'don't work, you train between June to August. Get your coaches and enter the competitions you want to enter, but we want you to give us results at the Olympic Games, World Championships and Commonwealth Games. If you don't get the results for us, next time, we won't support you with that kind of funding'," Fuseini said on the JoySports Link.
Azamati and Acquah are only the first Ghanaian athletes to occupy number one and two of their respective disciplines simultaneously, and with the Commonwealth Games as well as world championships on the horizon, Ghana has the best opportunity to end a 56-year wait for a gold medal.
The quest to drive state support starts on May 10, 2022 as JoySports hosts a roundtable with stakeholders and athletes, to carve a strategy for Ghana's gold chase.
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