Parliament honours Team Uganda at Tokyo Olympics

Parliament passed a motion congratulating the Team Uganda for their stellar performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that saw the country bag two gold, one silver and one bronze medal.

Uganda's performance in Tokyo was the second best by an African country after neighbouring Kenya. It was also Uganda's best performance at the Olympics since its first participation in the Melbourne 1956 Games.

The biggest performer was Joshua Cheptegei, who took gold in the Men's 5000m and silver in the Men's 10,000m.

Peruth Chemutai won gold in the Women's 3000m Steeplechase, while Jacob Kiplimo earned a bronze for his third-place finish in the Men's 10,000m.

Hon Moses Magogo (NRM, Budiope East County) moved the motion on Tuesday, 17 August, 2021 which received unwavering support from the legislators.

Hon William Chemonges (NRM, Kween County) asked for the support of Parliament to help Joshua Cheptegei in fundraising for construction of a training facility.

Hon Asuman Basalirwa (JEEMA, Bugiri Municipality) said, “We have talked about the increment of the budget whenever we are here congratulating top performers. We need to evolve from talking to actually acting on the issue of increasing funding of sports

We should also encourage setting up a working national framework to create a reward system for those who perform exceptionally when representing the country at international sporting events.”

Basalirwa urged the sports minister to push the contractor who is refurbishing the Nakivubo National Stadium to complete the job to allow Ugandans use the facility for training in various disciplines.

Prof. Elijah Mushemeza (Indep, Sheema County) requested the government to create a system that identifies talent and invests in training in order to produce more athletes that can win medals.

“It takes time and hard work to be able to turn over a medal; I attended various international sporting events when I was still an active athlete and came across athletes who had attended over five events before they could get a medal,” he added.

Hon Gilbert Olanya (FDC, Kilak South) called out to the Ministry of Education and Sports to enforce the uplifting of sports in schools so that athletes are trained and identified at a young age.

“Schools are focusing more on education and less on sports yet they are as important; it would be prudent for the education ministry to peg the issuance of education licenses to schools on their support of sports,” he suggested.

Olanya said that there is a lot of talent in schools that goes untapped and unidentified that could be potential medalists. 

Hon Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda (FDC, Kira Municipality) said that the medal wins at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics cast a good image for Uganda as a country.

“It is refreshing and something to be proud of that in the media we have Ugandans winning medals against the backdrop of images of the Police and army beating up and shooting at civilians in the media,” he added.

The motion proposed that Parliament increases funding to the sports sector; government comes up with a reward policy for sportsmen and; fast tracks completion of the Teryet High Altitude Training Centre in Kapchorwa district and other sports facilities countrywide.

The Deputy Speaker, Anita Among, asked the government to table before Parliament a comprehensive sports budget.