If there were no temples sports would be doomed
“Sports are no longer the domain of the Sports Ministry. It is now in the hands of Buddhist priests.” This is the view of former swimming star Julian Boling. The reason for this is that when outstation athletes come to Sri Lanka, the well-to-do reside in hotels. The others have to rely to Buddhist priests for accommodation.
Julian Bolling
According to Julian’s thinking the only South Asian country that is undergoing this catastrophe is Sri Lanka. Julian posed the question to the Sunday Times, “How can we expect such athletes to bring medals to Sri Lanka under these circumstances?”
He had posed this question to former Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake whether such athletes should be grateful to the Sports Minister or to Buddhists priests who had come to the rescue to such athletes in such circumstances.
Naveen Dissanayake had asked, “Why are you saying this.” Julian Bolling had replied that the Sports Ministry should give them accommodation and be responsible for them. Julian Bolling had gone on to say that at one time a team from had come to Katugastota to take part in a National Level competition. “They neither had the money nor the ability to find them. I offered them my home and allowed them to rough it out at my place. They slept on mats and fed them in the way that I could afford. After all that hardship they went on to win the runners-up spot at the event.”
“The Sports Ministry has no future plans. That is why that our sports are going down the drain day by day. The Sports Ministry, the National Olympic committee and National sports bodies should take the blame for this.” Julian spoke his heart out to the Sunday Times whilst pondering the future of swimming at the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) which is to begin in the first week of February.
Julian went onto explain that the first Gold in swimming was won by him at the SAG held in 1984 at Nepal, Kathmandu. From then onwards he had participated in four SAGs – 1984, 1987, 1989 and 1991, winning 15 Gold Medals. Julian is the only swimmer to have bagged so many Gold Medals for Sri Lanka at the South Asian Games. He has also represented at three Olympics – 1984 Los Angeles, 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona. He has also represented Sri Lanka at two Asian Games in 1982 Calcutta and 1986 Seoul. His pet events were 200 m, 400 m and 1500 Free Style.
He is an Old Boy of Royal College Colombo and a well known swimming coach. He has about 13,000 students. He was the Head Coach at Paralympics in swimming 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens.
Julian says that the NOC and the Sports Ministry drew up plans for the SAG three years ago but only now they have started giving facilities to athletes. “Can we win Medals at this rate?,” asked Julian. He went on to say that high officials are nothing but frauds. At this rate there is no future for sports.
At the 1991 SAF held in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka won 44 Gold, 34 Silver and 40 Bronze and came second to India after training for three years under a solid plan. We were unable to show our capabilities after that. He said that the blame lies directly on the NOC, Sports Ministry and sports bodies.
“All that they do is spending millions when the SAG is around the corner. All we do is talk about our success in 1991. We are only fooling ourselves. This is like a political deal. No team work. According to my reckoning Sri Lanka is at the bottom of the ladder where the SAG is concerned. India has surged ahead in all sports. In swimming Sri Lanka and India were on level. But today they have gone ahead to the Asian level. 21 swimmers will represent Sri Lanka at the SAG this year and there are only four who can bring medals to the country. They are the Rahim sisters, Mathew Abeysinghe and Chiranthe de Silva. He pointed out that there are two bodies involved in swimming. One recognised by the Sports Ministry and the other by the international swimming body.
He said that in order to get sports out of this mess he has suggested two methods to the Sports Ministry. They are: (1) Give accommodation to outstation athletes in at least 400 rooms. (2) Employ foreign consultants.