The chef de mission of Sierra Leone, Unisa Deen Kargbo, says although the role of the National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone (NOC-SLE) is to ensure that they deal with athletes at the top level, they have also realised that there is a disconnection as most times the athletes at the top level are unable to give the results the country is looking for, adding, “They go to play football, they are unable to win; they go to the Olympic Games, they are unable to bring medals, and at the end of the day the people look at the players as if the coaches are not strong or the athletes are not strong, but that is not the problem.”
He said, “Sometimes we have the problem from the beginning; there is a disconnection. The athletes are not properly groomed when they were at the young ages; the people have the habit of changing the age of these athletes. When they are 21, they criminally tell them to go and say they are 17. Then they go and play under 17 tournaments, the result is that the country doesn’t equally have the potential it will be looking out for when it comes to the national level. By the time we would be thinking that these under 17s are up to the task to represent Sierra Leone, within the space of five years they become old people. So the country will only be hoping and hoping, but there will be no results.”
Speaking further, Kargbo said, “This is why the NOC is now focusing on the real young people, not the manufactured young people, so our Olypmafrica Centre is looking forward to develop the real young people; those people who are in school, those people that will not reduce their age. That is why we care about the Olympafrica Centre.
“If you are about to acquire skills at this time with a lot of criminal act you can never acquire skills. That is the sad situation for Sierra Leone; we allow the athletes to go over the ages of 17, then we bring them to participate at 17 years of age competitions. The result is, give them drugs so that they can be able to train like 17 year old people. This is not correct.
“Training somebody doesn’t only mean how to play sports, but there are certain things that can also destroy you; drugs can also destroy you, so do not take banned drugs to enhance your performance.”