As the Paris 2024 Olympic Games approach, the RFI editorial team paints portraits of these medalists who have shed light on their countries, which are unaccustomed to monopolizing the podiums. Today, focus on the Turkmen Polina Guryeva, the Gabonese Anthony Obame, the Sudanese Ismail Ahmed Ismail and the Trinidadian Hasely Crawford.
4 mins
Polina Guryeva, the Turkmen with silver arms at Tokyo 2020
Originally, she was destined for artistic gymnastics. But in Tokyo, it was with dumbbells in hand that Polina Guryeva made Turkmenistan shine. After discovering weightlifting at the age of 12, the young woman did not have any great references when she competed in the Tokyo Games in 2021. She barely had a fourth place at the Asian Games a few months earlier. Polina Guryeva surprised everyone in Japan by performing a superb competition in the under 59 kilos: she first struggled to lift 96 kilos in the snatch, then she surpassed herself to lift 121 kilos in the clean and jerk. A total of 217 kilos therefore; not enough to catch up with Taiwanese Kuo Hsing-chun (236 kilos, a new Olympic record), but enough to win the silver medal, which is also the very first in Turkmenistan’s history. And let the competition be on its guard: Polina Guryeva is aiming for nothing but gold in Paris.
In London, Anthony Obame makes Gabon part of Olympic history
Write the story via sport. It was one of the goals of young Anthony Obame, a child of Libreville. When he grew up, the taekwondo player achieved his dream and reached the stars at the 2012 Olympic Games. Competing in the over 80 kilos category, the Gabonese had a near-perfect tournament, defeating Samoan Kaino Thomsen-Fuataga, then Cuban Robelis Despaigne. Then it was the Turkish Bahri Tanrıkulu, Olympic vice-champion in 2004, who suffered the law of Obame. And in the final, the Librevillois dominated for a long time before losing by a hair to Italian Carlo Molfetta. It was a very big final. The pressure was too much for me. I only thought about the result. HAS that moment, the fear of losing was greater than the desire to win », he confided to RFI. Welcomed as a hero in Gabon, a country which won an Olympic medal for the first time, Anthony Obame emerged from these London Olympics as a grown man, because a year later, in Puebla in Mexico, he won the title of world champion.
Ismail Ahmed Ismail, the Sudanese who made Kenyans tremble in Beijing
Two laps to put Sudan in the big book of the Olympic Games. Ismail Ahmed Ismail gave his country its first medal during the Beijing Olympics. Four years earlier, at just 20 years old, the runner had already managed to qualify for the 800m final in Athens, but was unable to fight for the podium, finishing in last place. On Chinese soil, on the other hand, a much more accomplished athlete took to the track. Second at the African Games a few weeks earlier behind the Kenyan David Rudisha, Ismail Ahmed Ismail took second place again in the final of the 2004 Olympics behind another Kenyan, Wilfred Bungei, forced to fight to the end not to give up the lead. gold to the Sudanese. This silver medal will be the apotheosis of his career, because the middle distance runner will never reach such heights again.
Hasely Crawford, the gold of Trinidad and Tobago
A golden revenge. In 1972, at the Munich Olympic Games, Hasely Crawford had victory, or at least the podium, in her legs in the 100m. Qualified for the final, the Trinidadian suffered a hamstring injury after just a few meters. Unable to finish the race, the sprinter used this rage to motivate himself for four years and show up in Montreal, at the 1976 Games. Years later, Crawford explained to The Team also capitalized on superstition by applying the adage of future brides and grooms: wear something new, something old, something borrowed and something blue. That is how he showed up for the final, in his long striped socks. Starting in lane number one, Hasely Crawford ran a large part of the 100m with his eyes closed, to finally win in 10:06, one hundredth better than Jamaican Don Quarrie. And that is how Trinidad and Tobago won, thanks to the new national hero, the first gold medal in its history at the Games. The next one would come in 2012 with Keshorn Walcott in the javelin throw.
Series – “Small” countries, great athletes
1 – Frankie Fredericks, Kirani James, Rohullah Nikpai, Hugues-Fabrice Zango
2 – Amadou Dia Ba, Bruno Julie, the 7th Fijian, Ahmed al-Maktoum
3 –Paea Wolfgramm, Susanthika Jayasinghe, Abdul Wahid Aziz, Zersenay Tadesse
4 –Gabriel Tiacoh, the handball players of Montenegro, Anthony Nesty, Issaka Daboré