Yaounde (AFP) – Françoise Mbango has chained titles and records: double Olympic triple jump champion, vice world champion. But the Cameroonian has come up against walls all her career to reach the highest level and stay there.
Because in his country, as in others in the region relatively unprolific in international champions, nothing or almost nothing is done to train athletes and their management.
This is why the gold medalist at the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, holder of the Olympic record (15.39 m) until Yulimar Rojas deprived her of it in 2021, opened the Institute in Yaoundé of Sports and Physical Education Françoise Mbango (ISEP-FM), which boasts of being the first private training in Sciences and Techniques of Physical and Sports Activities (STAPS) and sports management in Cameroon and Central Africa.
Meeting that drags on the day before an Olympic final, unpaid bonuses, non-registration for international competitions… ” I had to overcome many more obstacles than my competitors from other countries. Here, we miss success sometimes for nothing, because people are not trained “, confides Ms. Mbango to AFP, at the heart of her school founded in 2020.
” The sports economy is completely underutilized, there is so much talent “, she regrets, detailing:” We must rethink our policy as a whole, from detection to support for high-level athletes, and this involves training. »
In the corridors and classrooms of this vast pink building located in the south of the capital, the students, who follow a two-year course, dream of making a difference in a country which is passionate about sport, in particular football and its icons Samuel Eto’o, Rigobert Song or Patrick Mboma, all left very young to play in Europe.
Strong demand
Until then, only the National Institute for Youth and Sports (INJS) provided training for teachers and ministry officials, but only offered about fifteen places per category each year. ” A chasm between supply and demand », Estimates Ms. Mbango.
Its establishment welcomes a hundred students with a multidisciplinary approach combining the practice of sport with management techniques, psychology and anatomy. It aims to attract young people from all over Central Africa.
But the year costs 390,000 CFA francs (590 euros), which excludes the poorest. A third of Cameroonians live on less than two euros a day, according to the World Bank, and the legal minimum monthly wage is 36,000 CFA francs, around 55 euros. Mrs. Mbango promises to work on a scholarship system “.
” This new formation is blessed bread “Enthuses Dimitri Mebenga, communications officer for the Elite One football club (first division) Apejes de Mfou. ” Today, the vast majority of elite club agents have no training. And amateurism causes damage “, he laments.
For Adamo Saliou Hamadou, communication manager of Cotonsport de Garoua, reigning champion, “ many supervisors – often former players – are seeking training, particularly for the support of young talents “, he believes.
” I set up my structure to help young players break through, but I didn’t have the tools. I hope to get out of the informal at the institute and distinguish myself from all the scammers in the sector “, explains Steve Zoalang, 29, in the first year at ISEP-FM, who is leaving class to join athletics training.
Women’s Square
Female students are fighting to be more represented. ” I want to bring female blood and encourage women to practice sport in the face of difficulties and misconceptions. I suffered from it myself “says Florence Obossock, 27, who wants to become a football coach.
” When a woman plays football, she is mocked, labeled homosexual, we deny our femininity. It’s destabilizing and it discourages a lot of girls. The supervisors are men and they don’t understand what we are going through. I want to change that “, she explains.
” I loved sports, I did taekwondo but I had to stop because my parents asked me to devote myself to my studies and take care of my little brothers “Adds Thérèse Kelly Ngako, 19, in first grade. ” It’s very important to change the mentality of parents and to show that a woman can also be a top athlete. »
” It is up to us to show through our professionalism and our skills that we can succeed in earning a living in sport, thanks to this training. “, she says.