Janice R. Andrews
Sprinter Shaun Gill has been enjoying his momentary status as “the most famous man” in Belize since he was the only athlete from his country sent to the Olympics in Paris. He is one of four athletes who have been sent to the 2024 Olympics as the only representative of his country. It’s a duty that makes one feel proud and a little more nervous.
Although competing alone might be isolating, solo athletes have said that it is thrilling to represent their country as the default flagbearer during the opening ceremony. The 31-year-old sprinter Shaun Gill told the BBC how people in the athletes’ village came chasing after his signature because of his unexpected notoriety. He chuckled and said, “I may need a security detail. I had a joke with one of my friends.”
Larger Olympic delegations, like the US and UK delegations, have the option of selecting their flagbearers from among hundreds of athletes. But like Liechtenstein, Nauru, and Somalia, Belize, a country of less than 500,000 people in Central America, had only one candidate.
While he and other athletes marched along the Seine River on boats, Gill waved his nation’s flag with all the patriotic fervor he could manage. His passionate efforts in the pouring rain became widely shared. Carrying the aspirations of a country was stressful, Gill acknowledged. He thought that his inability to race as quickly as he had anticipated was due to jet lag after failing to make it to the men’s 100-meter final. “When I don’t give a good performance, I feel like, ‘Man, I hope I didn’t disappoint you all,'” he remarked.
The goal for Somalian runner Ali Idow Hassan is to reach the medal podium at the Stade de France, something Gill was unable to do. In the men’s 800m on Wednesday, Hassan will get to the semi-finals if he runs quickly enough. If not, Hassan and his competitors’ sprint around the track will end the East African nation’s aspirations of winning an Olympic medal in little over a minute.
The universality regulations, which are intended to guarantee a diverse representation of countries throughout the sports challenge, are advantageous to some of the world’s smallest nations. The 26-year-old Hassan told the BBC he was “very happy” to represent his country alone in Paris in 2024, but he acknowledged there was a down side: “I feel very sad when I’m alone.” Hassan has made friends with athletes from other African nations, though. The competitors concurred that their stay at the athletes’ village had been less alienating than they had anticipated.
It was none other than Andy Murray who tracked down mountain cyclist Romano Püntener, who rode alone for Liechtenstein. The tennis pro desired to trade pins with Püntener as he was aware that a Liechtenstein pin was extremely rare. International athletes exchange these credentials on a regular basis.
With only 38,000 citizens, Liechtenstein is a tiny landlocked nation sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland. Elite athletes have been hard to come by. Püntener said he had relished the overwhelming investment he had gotten as his country’s lone chance at the 2024 Games, calling the Olympics “unforgettable.” “It was only beneficial to me,” Püntener thought. “I could choose who I wanted with me and who I didn’t want with me, and we could really build the entire team around me.” In his first Olympic competition, the 20-year-old placed 28th in last week’s event. However, he had been free to enjoy himself and treasure the support of the twenty or thirty other countrymen who had come to see him off, as he was not expected to take home a medal. One of them was the prime minister of the nation.
In the digital era, athletes may find themselves distracted by an abundance of support when they should be concentrating on representing their nations. Püntener remarked, “It felt like I got a message from every person living in Liechtenstein.” Gill reported that he had gotten “thousands” of well wishes. “My Instagram and phone both freeze,” he remarked. At one point, I was unable to even have a quiet moment to myself, so I had to turn it off. I suppose I simply needed to quickly learn how to handle it, but I really appreciate it.
In many aspects, the lone contenders are up against the odds, even with the overwhelming support they may have garnered. Winzar Kakiouea represented Nauru, the world’s smallest republic and a highly dependent nation on aid, in the men’s 100-meter race. He told the New York Times that a lot of individuals he encountered were unaware of his nation, which had a population of 11,000 and only possessed a “dirt oval” for a racetrack.
These participants’ lives may look quite different from the lives of the world’s sports megastars after the Games are gone and the focus shifts to something else. Gill has made the decision to step away from major events in favor of mentoring Belize’s upcoming running generation and pursuing an engineering career of his own. Püntener is going home to his house in Schaan, which is well situated for cross-country riding in the highlands of Liechtenstein. It feels like a huge town to me,” he remarked. Though he intends to return to his native city of Mogadishu one day, Hassan will resume his training in Ethiopia. Speaking on the eve of the men’s 800m competition, he expressed optimism that more delegates from Somalia will be sent to Olympics in the future as a result of improved security conditions. Despite having a population of 17 million, Somalia has endured decades of civil conflict. Hassan said, “There will be more athletes one day.” “There will be 100 athletes present, not just ten.”
