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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 AUGUST 2024 Winning an Olympic medal requires more than passion Editorial MALTA'S triumph in the Games of the Small States of Europe last year provided a morale booster. For the first time in the games' history, Malta topped the table with a record-breaking 97 medals, including 38 gold medals across all sporting disciplines. It is true that Malta was competing against countries its own size or even smaller but it was the first time the team excelled beyond everyone's wildest dreams. But fast forward 12 months and the GSSE 2023 suc- cess appears to have been a blip in an otherwise barren landscape rather than a sign of progression. At the Paris Olympics, Maltese athletes were no- where close to having a medal within their sights. The Olympic medal continues to elude Malta. The closest this country ever came was in 2004 and 2008 when shooter William Chetcuti lost a tie breaker that would have placed him among the final six had he won. For nations with a limited talent pool, qualifying for the world's biggest sporting gala is already tough, and reaching the podium even more of a long shot. Malta's small size is its main weakness but there have been exceptions and in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, San Marino, with a population of just over 30,000, achieved the distinction of becoming the smallest country to win an Olympic medal. But while Malta's Olympic medals bureau has histor- ically remained empty, other minnows have won med- als including the Bahamas (pop. 400,000; medals 16), Barbados (pop. 282,000; medals 1), Cyprus (pop. 1.2 million; 1 medal) and Iceland (pop. 376,000; 4 medals). In Paris so far, Fiji with a population of less than one million, has won a silver medal in rugby sevens. Can Malta ever aspire to win an Olympic medal or is it just a pipe dream to be resurrected once every four years simply to have something to talk about? "The way things stand, it is almost impossible for a Maltese athlete to train full-time professionally and within a professional setting," weightlifting coach Jesmond Caruana had told MaltaToday three years ago in the aftermath of the Tokyo Olympics. He had accompanied Maltese weightlifter Yasmin Zammit Stevens, who was the first ever Maltese weightlifting participant. Caruana did not mince his words: "The best young Maltese talents in weightlifting do quite well, as there is a level playing field at that age with all chil- dren being in school. But the older they grow, the more difficult it becomes for them to keep up with the pace, as almost no Maltese athletes become pro- fessionals." And this is the crux of the matter. Elite athletes have to become professionals to even start dreaming of being at par with the best and that requires not only a mentality shift but significant investment in educa- tion, training, coaching and support structures that provide the right mental, physical and nutritional care an athlete requires. A radical re-think is required if Malta aspires to pro- duce elite athletes that can have a sure go at interna- tional success. Investments like Malta's flexi-training scheme, where athletes train professionally in their sport for a number of hours per week, and the introduction of a sports school at secondary level, do not appear to have left an appreciable mark on sporting success. A professional assessment of these two initiatives is required to determine how they can be improved to truly support elite athletes. Another analysis is required at pre-secondary school level to determine whether enough importance is ded- icated to sports and physical activity. Elite athletes need to be nurtured in the correct man- ner, provided with scholarships for academies where they can advance their skills while benefitting from a wholesome education. And substantial financial in- vestment is required to ensure that these athletes can participate regularly in international competitions and training camps. Associations and clubs should also be helped to pro- fessionalise their sector with good coaches and facili- ties. But there is also the psychological aspect that needs to be nurtured. Unfortunately, too many promising Maltese athletes in various sporting fields just fade away because they do not find the support network that enables them to adopt sports as a lifestyle; as a job. Writing in this newspaper a couple of weeks ago, Kayleigh Busuttil Fitzpatrick, spoke of her passion for tennis and how a government sports scholarship has helped her make the leap to a more professional set up. She is still a teenager and recounted how 10 months ago she packed up her bags and moved to Sicily where she is now living as a full-time athlete in Palermo. She trains for five hours a day and catches up with her studies in between training sessions, late at night or on weekends. She plays tournaments, eats meals pre- pared by nutritionists and has mental coaching and physiotherapy sessions every week. This is one girl – she is still a girl – who has decid- ed that passion alone is not enough to succeed inter- nationally. Indeed, she has transformed that passion into a daily routine of constant hard work. But more importantly this is being done in an enabling environ- ment. It is this attitude that is required from our elite ath- letes and those aspiring to go places in sports. If Mal- ta aspires to ever have athletes who can rank among the best, a holistic approach is necessary to have more meaningful investment in sports. Anything less means we can just have an interesting debate on medals never seen every four years, while watching smaller countries step up on the Olympic podium to collect theirs. Quote of the Week "We are sorry that Christians felt offended by the dinner scene where some believed they detected a parody of the Last Supper. Following the verse of Saint John, 'Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment', I wanted to wait for the explanation given by the artistic director of this ceremony." French Ambassador Agnès Von Der Mühll, reacting to Archbishop Charles Scicluna's call for an apology to Christians over a scene from the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The artistic director had declared the Last Supper was not the inspiration of the scene, but the Greek god of celebration Dionysus. MaltaToday 10 years ago 3 August 2014 19 migrants die in latest boat tragedy 80 miles off Lampedusa UP to 19 persons are thought to have died in the latest tragedy involving migrants, as a boat carrying asylum seekers found itself in difficulties around 80 miles from Lampe- dusa. The government believes that a stampede before or during the transfer of the migrants to a merchant vessel caused their death. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat broke the news while attending the Maratona Ohloq Tbissima in Sta Venera yesterday morning. "In recent hours yet another tragedy oc- curred outside our shores, when six boats carrying migrants were detected. "One of the boats faced some difficulties and a number of dead bodies will be brought in to Malta while an infant who tragically died will be taken to Italy with his parents who are still alive," Muscat said. According to the Prime Minister, the un- confirmed number of deaths is of between 12 and 15. Government sources told MaltaToday that the infant was among the dead, howev- er the total number of victims could not yet be confirmed. The rescued migrants are be- ing transferred to Italy, while the dead bod- ies, apart from the infant's, will be brought to Malta. The authorities were alerted by a mer- chant ship and it is thought that the incident happened while the asylum seekers were be- ing transferred on to another vessel. Although the incident happened inside Malta's search and rescue area, Lampedusa was the closest port of call.