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Ellina Mhlanga

Sports Reporter

THEY wrote their own piece of history just over four years ago when they made their maiden appearance at the Olympic Games in Brazil.

The Mighty Warriors still hold the distinction of being the first team from Zimbabwe to qualify for a global football showcase.

They fought against all odds to find themselves at the final tournament at the 2016 Games and they were one of the major highlights for Olympics during those Games considering the road they walked to achieve the ultimate goal.

Sadly, it was a different and disappointing story altogether for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifiers when the problems that have over the years haunted women’s football in this country manifested in an unexpected way.

The senior women’s side was in no-show for their second leg of the second round Olympic qualifiers against Zambia that was scheduled for the National Sports Stadium after some clubs had withdrawn their players from camp in a stand-off with ZIFA.

Indications were that there was disgruntlement among the players because of outstanding appearance fees, allowances and bonuses. This was not the first time such issues have been raised when it comes to the women’s team.

The Mighty Warriors were trailing Zambia after they had gone down 0-5 in their first meeting in Lusaka.

Zambia went on to qualify for the Games for the first time when beating Cameroon on away goals rule in the two-legged tie in March last year in the final phase of the qualifiers.

The teams drew 4-4 on aggregate but Zambia secured their ticket to Tokyo on away goals rule to become the fifth African country to reach the Olympic women’s football tournament.

Other African countries that have been to the Games before are Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon and Zimbabwe.

For the Mighty Warriors, a team that had made the nation proud a few years back, it was a sad ending to their campaign.

As the situation stands, this was a missed opportunity, which with the right support and commitment from all the sports stakeholders could have been utilised for the benefit of the team, sport and the country at large in terms of participation at the Olympics. Commenting on the challenges sport is facing and in particular those that are chasing for qualification to the Olympics, former Zimbabwe Olympic Committee chief executive, Robert Mutsauki, said something should have been done for the team.

The former Association of National Olympic Committee of Africa (ANOCA) technical director believes with the right support, the senior women’s side stood a chance of making their second straight appearance at the Olympic Games.

“Something should have been done to ensure that (they qualify) because I thought that was a low hanging fruit.

“In other words, they were the closest and at the time when they were doing the qualifiers, it was before Covid-19. So at that time these restrictions we are talking about were not there.

“So they had an equal chance of qualifying like the others. That would have given us a team sport and also for the Mighty Warriors it would have been good history because it would have been a second consecutive qualification.

“And maybe this time they would have gone and done better than what they did in Rio. This time with the experience and all that, they could have improved. So we missed that,” said Mutsauki.

Currently Zimbabwe has one qualification in rowing and those that are still in the qualifying phase will need to go an extra-mile under the prevailing circumstances.

They are not just focusing on qualification but also have to ensure they remain safe from the Covid-19 pandemic and stay strong mentally to achieve the intended goal, which is making it to Tokyo for the Games. Restrictions that have been put in place to curb the virus also means limited qualifying opportunities for them.

Mutsauki has indicated the need to incorporate sports psychology to assist athletes so that they remain positive, become mentally strong and be able to achieve their objectives under the difficult circumstances.