By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (July 29^th 2021)

Impact

Ponga Liwewe, son of Zambia’s greatest commentator, Dennis, is a distinguished football journalist and administrator in his own right. Ponga did not choose footballers as his greatest Olympian, Zambian or international. Zambia’s greatest athlete Samuel Matete was his greatest Zambian Olympian and his choice as greatest ever is Jamaican athletics icon Usain Bolt, undoubtedly one of the sport’s greats.

Tokyo’s second Olympiad saw Italian Lamont Marcell Jacobs unexpectedly succeed Bolt as Olympic champion in the 100m. Italy’s win in the 4x 1oom relay was even more unexpected. It was their first win in the event for 73 years. These were events that Bolt had made his own in the Olympic Games.

Usain Bolt won nine gold medals in the Summer Olympic Games between 2008-2016, although the Jamaican 4x 100m relay team in Beijing’s Olympiad of 2008 was disqualified in 2017 when Nesta Carter tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Bolt won 100m and 200m gold in London and Rio de Janeiro as well as 4x100m.

Bolt set 100m Olympic and World records individually three times – Olympic and World record of 9.69 on August 16^th 2008. Exactly a year later he broke his still-standing World record in a time 0f 9.58.  He repeated the feat in the 200m, shaving just 0.02 seconds off Michael Johnson’s Olympic and World Records, which had been set 12 years earlier. Exactly a year after Bolt won Olympic gold in Beijing in a time of 19.30 Bolt broke his own record with a time of 19.19. Jamaica set four world record times for the 4x 100m relay with Bolt being part of the team. The first was at Beijing’s Olympic Games, but three of those record times involved Nesta Carter who was proved to have used performance-enhancing drugs when the samples of 2008 were retested in 2017. Jamaica was disqualified retrospectively. All of the World Record times are unclear, as Carter was part of the quartet thrice and his replacement Steve Mullings was banned for doping offenses in 2011. The remaining trio, Bolt, Michael Frater, and Asafa Powell have never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Bolt won eleven World Championship titles.

No athlete ever won gold medals in the 100m and 200m at three consecutive Olympic Games. He is Ponga Liwewe’s choice for the greatest Olympian. Liwewe explains his choice: “Bolt, for dominating the men’s hundred meters for a decade and putting the sport back in the spotlight.”

Great Olympian

George Lwandamina, known as Chicken George, was a defender and later distinguished coach in Zambian football, notably at Zesco United. Currently working in Tanzania, Lwandamina offered us his opinion on a series on the Greatest Olympian.

He disagrees with Liwewe and chose a Zambian and a footballer as his greatest Olympian. It may seem a strange choice as Zambia did not win a medal in football.

Nevertheless, his choice is Kalusha Bwalya. “Great Kalu,” Lwandamina said, “he exhibited good football and made Zambian sport and the Olympic Games in Zambia grow.

“That is how our country was known.”

Great Kalu distinguished himself in 1994’s African Cup of Nations but played an important in Zambia’s run at the Olympic Games. Over thirty years later Zambians celebrate Bwalya’s great performance against Italy in Seoul’s Olympic Games Football Tournament a hat-trick in the 4-0 drubbing of the Azzurri. This was before any African nation had won a medal in football at the Olympics Games.

Egypt had come closest – 4^th place in 1928 – when Olympics football really mattered.

Iconic Moments – Football

One of the greatest players Zambia ever produced announced his talent to the world at Seoul’s Olympic Games Football Tournament. Former Zesco United and Zambia Technical advisor, George Lwandamina, chose Kalusha ‘King Kalu’ Bwalya as his greatest Zambian Olympian. Zambia advanced to the knockout stage with Bwalya scoring an African record tally of six goals, including the hat-trick against Italy in a still talked about 4-0 win against Italy. They were eliminated by West Germany by the same score, with Jürgen Klinsmann also netting a hat-trick.

Bwalya was not the only Zambian football icon to distinguish himself in the Olympic Games. Africa’s Goal King, the late great, Godfrey ‘Ucar’ Chitalu made his Olympic bow in Moscow in 1980. Zambia was a late replacement for Egypt, which boycotted Moscow’s Olympic Games. Zambia finished bottom of the group, losing all three matches to Cuba, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Venezuela. Zambia scored two goals, conceding six. Typically, Chitalu scored both of Zambia’s goals.

Although he did not go to Seoul eight years later – he was part of the bench that helped Zambia qualify.

Outstanding

Bwalya’s tally is far from an Olympic record. In fact, two men not only beat his tally but obliterated it in one match by scoring ten apiece before World War I. Danish forward Sophus ‘Krølben’ Nielsen scored ten goals in one match during the 17-1 rout of France A on October 22nd, 1908. He also scored in the 9-0 thrashing of France B. France A was so shaken by the mauling they refused to play again, so Sweden, walloped 12-1 by Great Britain, played for the bronze medal – they lost 2-0 to the Netherlands.

Four years later the consolation matches provided another mauling and also a tragic and disgraceful story. Germany thrashed the Russian Empire 16-0. German Jew, Gottfried (Godfrey) Fuchs netted a staggering ten in the match. Two years later Fuchs and fellow German Jewish teammate, Julius Hirsch, fought for Germany again, this time in World War I. Both distinguished themselves on and off the pitch. Their reward was persecution by the Nazis. Their achievements were stricken from records and denied entry to clubs they had distinguished they were robbed of any rights. Fuchs, seeing that there was no future in Germany, left in 1937. Hirsch stayed in Germany. He was murdered in the Gas Chambers of Auschwitz.