No medals, but the team impresses at the Shaolin Temple
Botswana’s Kung Fu team has arrived back from the 2024 Shaolin Games in China without a single medal.
The five man team led by Master Bethuel ‘Chilito’ Mmoloki competed at the Shaolin Temple games from 12th-15th July.
Although the team failed to bring home a single medal, they still left a lasting impression at China’s cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu.
The team comprising two masters and three young athletes was recognised for their flawless moves, and won the Best Outstanding Exhibition award.
While this is still a far cry from the team’s 10 medal haul at the same competitions last year, Mmoloki believes bringing a skeletal squad to a competition of that magnitude seriously dented their chances at the podium.
In an interview with Voice Sport, Mmoloki could not hide his frustration.
“The reason why we only managed to be awarded Outstanding Exhibition award instead of winning any medal was because of the number of athletes we brought to the games this year. Last year we had 13 athletes representing us, and 10 managed to get a medal, while this year we only had five, and three of them were making their maiden appearance in the tournament,” says Chilito.
He goes on to argue that lack of financial resources is another reason for their poor performance in comparison to other African countries such as Zambia who are fully funded by their governments.
“We were forced to leave behind most of our experienced athletes who could have performed better and even brought home medals due to a lack of funding,”
Mmoloki told Voice Sport that all those who made it to the games had to dig deep into their own pockets to fund their sporting dreams.
“I had to beg Batswana to help me pay for my flight tickets, and likewise my team members also had to source their own sponsorship, and it is not supposed to be like this,” he added with a heavy sigh.
The Kung-Fu Federation is not recognized by the local sporting mother body, the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) as they currently do not meet the minimum requirements.
To gain recognition the code has to establish more than 10 Kung Fu clubs in Botswana, which’ll see them get funding just like all the other national sporting codes.
Currently, the association has only three affiliated clubs.
