20 Sep 2023

Botswana Olympian Association president, France Mabiletsa, said there were lesson learnt from World Olympian Association members seminar he attended recently.

He said in an interview that the objective of the seminar, which was held in Istanbul, Turkey, was to meet, motivate, share success stories as well as to ensure that they carry their mandate diligently.

He said they also discussed a myriad of issues aimed at coming out with plans on how they could succeed as different associations from across the world.

Furthermore, Mabiletsa said they also shared their strengths and challenges and how best they could support each other as different associations.

“We also interrogated ourselves on how we will grow our different associations, and also make sure that in our quest to take our associations forward, our mother bodies have programmes that we can benefit from,” he said.

He added that they were also reminded that every year they could apply for around P10 000 for their administration. According to Mabiletsa, they were also encouraged to work closely with their countries’ sport bodies and also find ways through which they could give their associations some subvention, as well as find ways of how they could brand themselves through their athletes.

He said the World Olympian Association was focused on looking after the Olympians, whether they were still active or retired athletes.

Furthermore, he said their services were also to ensure that when the athletes who were Olympians retire, they were not forgotten, adding that it was important to always find a way to still connect with them, and give them duties.  Mabiletsa said there were programmes in place that all association members were engaging on to look after the Olympians.

He said those programmes would be done through the National Olympians Associations, and he said Botswana has one. “We want people to engage the Olympians; give them duties so that they could survive through earning an income,” he said.

According to Mabiletsa, they were yet to register their organisation in Botswana due to financial constraints. He, however, said this would not deter them from continuing with their day-to-day work. ENDS