Highlights: In Madagascar, judo and weightlifting are on track to be represented in the 2024 Paris Olympics. For the island's athletes, access to major international competitions remains a challenge. Too many talents, forced to choose between studies and sport, are diverted from a professional career before even reaching the level of international competitions. No support from the State for the professional retraining of its athletes, and no more during their career, adds Éric Saïd, president of the Malagasy Judo Federation.

Home straight for a number of athletes who still hope to reach the minimum requirements to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics. In Madagascar, judo and weightlifting are on track to be…

The Olympic Games, a glass ceiling for Malagasy athletes?

Home straight for a number of athletes who still hope to reach the minimum requirements to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In Madagascar, judo and weightlifting are on track to be represented in four months.

A modest delegation, made up of only a few athletes, will perhaps be there.

For the island's athletes, access to major international competitions remains a challenge.

This was the subject of a round table organized by the French Institute of Madagascar on March 13.

Malagasy weightlifter Elisa Vania Ravololoniaina during the competition at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, August 9, 2016. She ranked 12th among the under 63 kilos.

AP - Mike Groll

By: RFI Follow

With our correspondent in Antananarivo

Pauline Le Troquier

In thirteen participations in the

Summer

Olympic Games , Madagascar has never won a medal.

But the challenge for the island lies elsewhere: allowing the country to at least be represented by a few athletes.

Too many talents, forced to choose between studies and sport, are diverted from a professional career before even reaching the level of international competitions.

And then there are those who manage to break through the glass ceiling, like Bako Ratsifandrihamanana.

This African swimming champion participated in the Moscow Games in 1980, without ever acquiring the status of high-level sportswoman, which did not exist in the country.

“

Swimming didn't give me a living, even though I am currently the most successful swimmer in Madagascar.
I had grants from French cooperation but nothing from the Malagasy state.
Today, I am obliged to accumulate contracts here and there, in terms of my specialty as a trainer ([in entrepreneurship)

,” she explains.

Read alsoJudo: Laura Rasoanaivo, the little Malagasy queen who dreams of the Olympics

No support from the State for the professional retraining of its athletes, and no more during their career, adds Éric Saïd.

For this former high-level athlete and current president of the Malagasy Judo Federation, pushing Malagasy athletes towards international competitions is a costly process and fraught with uncertainty:

“

From the moment competitions are organized in other countries, the problem for all Malagasy athletes is mainly related to travel costs.
They always ask themselves the question 'Am I going to be able to defend my title?
Am I going to be able to leave?'' The ticket is taken two days before, or even the day before departure, due to lack of budget!

Can Madagascar become a sports nation in the long term?

Yes, respond the professionals, provided that a dedicated status to better protect athletes from the hazards of such a career – whether possible injuries or their inevitable professional retraining – is finally put in place in the country.

Also read: Malagasy weightlifter Rosina Randafiarison, a champion with all-consuming ambition

The Olympic Games, a glass ceiling for Malagasy athletes?

The Olympic Games, a glass ceiling for Malagasy athletes?

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