The Tokyo 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES which was the XXXII Modern Olympic Games has emerged a very different Olympic Games. Yes very different in the sense that it has presented a very different type of TRUCE which was a major feature of the Ancient Olympic Games. In the ancient Olympic Games. A TRUCE was a unique and a very unique. VALVE that was usually applied and strictly observed among the Greek city states whenever a war was going on and the Olympic Year and period crept in. Since the Olympic Games were observed as a four yearly festival in the Ancient Greece, wars were a common obstacle for the games. To overcome this obstacle, TRUCE was the answer. The antidote to scale the hurdle created by war.
However, the war that emanated against TOKYO 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES was the COVID-19 PANDEMIC. Really, in my article “May African Traditional Sports record wonderful (breakthrough in this 2020 – 2030 Decade” [Part 1]. I used the word ‘Pandemic” at the introduction and for the introduction of the write-up. After it had already been posted, I started to ponder on the appropriateness of the use of the word “pandemic”. I was wondering whether I ought to have used endemic. Since it had gone, I just told myself, just leave it like that, you were only worrying about it because of the training you received when you were at Ansar-Ud-Deen Teacher Training College, Otta, Ogun State Nigeria where you had a book called ‘English Registrars. The book taught us that there were certain specific words for certain specific situations or specific professions/communications. If you master your training very well, whenever a newscaster is reading the news, you would be supplying the appropriate words he would mention in completing a sentence.
Those were the good old days training in your English Language lessons. Anyway after about three months later, that word pandemic exploded and the explosion started to rock the whole world wide wide. Yes wilde wide. The explosion catapulted our beautiful Tokyo 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES to be staged in 2021 or be turned to shreds i.e not to take place at all. The NEW TRUCE in the Olympic Games emerged bringing the TOKYO 2020 to be staged on 23rd July – 8th August, 2021 but retaining the beautiful name TOKYO 2020. And with many adaptations so to say for the human race to stage the largest social gathering of youths being moderated by their senior adults as sports administrating and technical officials, including their performances on the sport arena and directing their affairs inside their rooms and their immediate environment nilly – willy whether they are seeing them on not in their games villages.
Talking about TRADITIONAL SPORTS being in the Olympic Games, it will appear to some enthusiasts that are not too highly informed, as something that is very awkward. However, the educated elites, especially the Physical Education Professionals, historians and especially those that are versed in ancient history of Europe, particularly the history of ancient Greece and Roman Empire, will agree with me that there are a lot of Traditional Sports in the Olympic Games.
The Olympic Games started with Traditional Sports of Greeks City States used in felicitating with the gods and goddesses of Greece especially Zeus at the Olympia. The Olympic Games had started for quite sometime before the first recorded one in history. The first ancient Olympic Games recorded took place in 776 BC was at a sacred valley in Elis, a city in ancient Greece. This valley became a stadium measuring 643 feet long and 97 feet broad with about 40,000 spectators sitting on the grassy slope overlooking the arena.
The festival took place at a four-year interval called the Olympiad. After several Olympiads, many traditional sports of the Greeks’ City States crept into the festival. Such included the pentathlon, wrestling, boxing and chariot racing. Then Greeks were conquered by the Roman Empire, the Romans retained the Olympic Games and introduced some of their own traditional sports. So you have an event called Greeko-Roman wrestling in the modern Olympic Games. Gymnastics, the body beautiful sport, was originally traditional sport from Ancient Greece also. All these are in this modern day Olympic Games, so why can’t African Traditional Sports be in the Olympics too?
Moving away from Europe based traditional sports that are in the Olympic Games of today, we also have Asian based traditional sports such as Judo, Taekwondo and Karate
Refreshing as ever, AFROTRADOSPORTS, is telling you that the basis of modern Olympics and Sports, all over the world is in the Traditional Sports.
Traditional Sports that have become highly exposed, refined, well articulated “institunalized” and able to meet the standard set by International Olympic Committee may gain acceptance to the Olympic Games when well presented.
(Please read my write up on: TRADITIONAL SPORT IN THE COMMONWEALTH 2018) for more comprehensiveness of thus topic
TOP TEN MEDAL TABLE OF TOKYO 2020
| RANK | TEAM/COUNTRY | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL MEDALS |
| 1 | United State of America | 39 | 41 | 33 | 113 |
| 2 | People Republic of China | 38 | 32 | 18 | 88 |
| 3 | Japan | 27 | 14 | 17 | 58 |
| 4 | Great Britain | 22 | 21 | 22 | 65 |
| 5 | ROC | 20 | 28 | 23 | 71 |
| 6 | Australia | 17 | 7 | 22 | 46 |
| 7 | Netherlands | 10 | 12 | 14 | 36 |
| 8 | France | 10 | 12 | 11 | 33 |
| 9 | Germany | 10 | 11 | 16 | 37 |
| 10 | Italy | 10 | 10 | 20 | 40 |
AFRICAN NATIONS’ MEDAL TABLE @ TOKYO 2020
| RANK | TEAM/COUNTRY | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL MEDALS |
| 1 | Kenya | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| 2 | Uganda | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | South Africa | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 4 | Egypt | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 5 | Ethiopia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 | Tunisia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | Morocco | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Nigeria | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | Namibia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Botswana | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | Bukina Faso | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | Ivory Coast | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | Ghana | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 11 | 12 | 14 | 37 |
The above two medal tables should positively motivate the Confederation of African Traditional Sports and CA Games in working very hard to get African Indigenous Sports to become Olympic Sports. May be Africa will also do better if her indigenous sports are in the Olympic Games.
Mallam Elias Yusuf
N:B
As afrotradosports.com is using this write up to felicitate with Tokyo 2020, it is also using it to felicitate with our Traditional Sports Federations and other bodies that are promoting Traditional sports Worldwide and at the grassroot HAPPY INTERNATIONAL DAY OF TRADITIONAL SPORTS WORLDWIDE for the first time in history today 14th August 2021. Such bodies include the UNESCO, THE TAFISA, THE ETHNOSPORTS, The International Council of Traditional Sports and Games (ICTSG) (the central celebrant) I suppose all stakeholders like Confederation of African Traditional Sports and Games (CATSG), Traditional Sports Federation of Nigeria (TSFN) and of course, we in afrotradosports.com. Many happy returns of the day, longlife and prosperity. Next year we shall be more prepared for this celebration.
Afrotradosports 