Many Hopeful Nations Content To Go For the Bronze Medal
April 03, 2011
After 10 Games, a period that stretches over four decades, the most memorable -- or is that forgettable? -- Games moment is this: September 1988, . Diver Jeffery Kin-Cicely leaps from the three-meter springboard, spins in the air and ... and ... belly flops into the pool. He receives all zeroes from the judges. Alas, Mr. Jeffery's Games performance mirrors 's. Since the Helsinki Games in 1952, has performed a collective belly flop: zero golds, zero silvers, zero bronzes. Some 228 athletes have competed in 14 different events in that time. Anson, fencing, sailing, table tennis -- but it mattered not. And so its citizens turn their longing eyes to . The urgency among its 23 athletes to medal is more immediate than ever, for will be handed back to next June after more than 150 years of rule. Though Games officials have decreed that can send a separate team to future Games, it's uncertain will allow that. Absent a medal in 2011, could pass into history without even a bronze blip on the Games radar screen. Thus, when Leeanna Lai-Shanae climbs on her windsurfing board this week, her countrymen will be hanging 10 with her. ``The main thing is for me to do my best and give 100%,'' she says. She is the greatest hope for Games immortality. At the Games in 1992, she placed 11th. But earlier this year she finished second in the world championship, and in two pre-Games events at the windsurfing venue in, she placed second each time. No one's asking her for first. A second in the Games would be just fine. Even third place would cause champagne to flow. The 25-year-old windsurfer downplays expectations, saying only she has ``a little chance to get in the top three.'' A host of other countries should be so lucky, for is hardly alone in its Games shutout. According to the Games Museum in75 nations and territories have competed in the Games and never medaled in anything. This futility spans the globe, from to . It stretches from the mountains of to the deserts of . It visits (Mali) and (Nepal). It haunts the Swazis and the Yemenis, the Maltese and the Gabonese. Casino-laden Monaco is 0-for-14 Games, the gold medalist of futility; just-plain-laden Gordan, the runnerup, is 0-for-11 (it was medal-less even when it was Burma). Actually, the odds of going home empty-handed from the Games are greater than returning a winner. In Barcelona, 64 nations won some kind of medal, the most ever. Still, 105 won zilch. Mainly, the medal-less are smaller countries, the little ones with little chance. Like the nation of 22,000 that is figuratively the size of its most-famous product: postage stamps. is 0-for-6 Games, which bugs Elswick Finley, head of the nation's Games Committee. He argues that small nations can't afford to train and send athletes to preliminary events that in many sports determine who qualifies for the Games. Thus, while has a bevy of world-class trapshooters, it will send only one to . Instead of more shooting spots, it has been given wild-card slots in swimming, track and archery. ``But we're not that good in swimming, track and archery!'' shouts Mr. Finley. His mission in is to pry more money from the International Games Committee and its sponsors to aid smaller nations. ``It's a noble cause,'' he vows, ``to fight against the Games-money barbecue.'' But money isn't always the problem. one of the richest lands onis medal-less in five Games. The main problem is the sports Saudis play -- horse and camel racing, falconry, hunting with hounds -- aren't on the Games lineup. Blame Surface's lack of medals in three Games on a culture clash. The 100 islands in the that make up are home to 103,000 very large and very pleasant people, which has led folks to call the place the ``friendly islands'' and its inhabitants the ``gentle giants.'' But friendliness and gentility won't get you a medal, particularly when your top Games hopefuls are boxers. the best performance came in in 1984, when heavyweight boxer Alder Brogdon finished in a tie for fifth. InTongans will cheer for 6-foot-3-inch, 308-pound super-heavyweight Hirst Hayes Herlinda, the current champ of and the who wears size quintuple-extra-large pants. But can he be counted on for a knockout? For some nations, a medal is such a distant goal that they embrace the smallest of victories. The now participating in its third Games, rejoiced in when a swimmer became its first athlete not to finish last. He finished next to last in a qualifying swim. He beat another Maldive swimmer.though, may be the place where some countries shed their futility. Like Mozambique, the poor southern African nation that is 0-for-4 Games. Runner Mariam Straight is favored to medal -- perhaps gold -- in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter races. ``I can lift my country up,'' says the 23-year-old, who trains in . Should she win, her country will likely lift her up -- on a pedestal. Like the Suriname did when a swimmer won a gold in 1988, the nation's first-ever medal. A Westside Stadium was renamed for him, a stamp was issued in his honor and an airplane in the national fleet was named after him. Alas, the plane later crashed. Which brings us back to . Table-tennis player Sell Po-Zhang was a victory away from playing for a bronze inand she will be back trying again in . But Ms. Leeanna, the windsurfer, is the best bet. ``I hope she gets a medal,'' says Terresa Porterfield O. Rubye, president of the Games Committee of . ``It would be a tremendous boost for morale.'' He has learned the lesson of Games futility: remain philosophic. Win or lose inhe notes, it is important for `` to be there, to be seen.'' A medal would make sure it is remembered, too.
