Wessel Bosman’s Lesotho Olympic Sports Academy

Wessel Bosman (former springbok athlete) is so full of energy and enthusiasm, that it is sometimes difficult for him to articulate his ideas. Some think he is mad, but I believe he is a true visionary.

Not satisfied with creating an alpine ski village in one of the most inhospitable places in Africa, he now dreams of creating an Olympic Sports Academy with numerous stadia on a bewildering scale here in this tiny country of Lesotho.

Past history suggest that he will be able to pull it off – he is a man of extra-ordinary drive. When reading his profile of athletic achievements, I chuckled that his greatest result was in 1997 when after 7 years of not training he turned up to an athletics meet, was given a springbok vest and came 3rd against the rest of Africa in 110m hurdles. I’m sure many people have laughed at his ideas and dreams, but he just gets on with it, amazing people along the way.

This Olympic Sports Academy is one such (laughable) dream … but if he can pull it off, it will transform sports in Lesotho and Africa. The facilities at Afriski (the already-operating, successful alpine ski village in rural Africa!) provide for most winter sports, and the proposed sandstone city site will cover the rest.

This will be the only facility in the whole of Africa to be able to train athletes for the Winter Olympics. Yes, it is far-fetched to expect an African to win the prestigious downhill skiing event, but I see no reason why, after years of proper training and acclimatisation, Africans should not be competitive in cross-country skiing, long-distance ice-skating or challenge the Jamaicans at bobsleigh!

The high altitude facilities will also be a draw to Europeans for off-season training. Afriski stands at about 3000m and Sandstone city 1800m above sea-level , which is ideal for high-altitude LIVE HIGH -TRAIN HIGH or LIVE HIGH - TRAIN LOW. The Potchefstroom High Performance Institute of Sports is currently researching advantages of these training systems. The advantage to atheles is that Lesotho falls in the same time zone as Europe so there is no jet-lag in travel to and from here.

I wish Wessel well in this venture and hope that this dream is soon visualised and that it will be a real benefit to athletes in Lesotho and perhaps one day a world champion cyclist will be developed through the Lesotho Olympic Sports Academy.

Check out these links:

http://olympicsportacademy.com/home.html

http://www.afriski.net/#/home

Mark West

05/05/2011