No scandal, no news - Do we deserve our greats?

It’s very strange to see how we treat our champions. Do we deserve them?

(by Attila Spiriev)

A girl or a boy? A woman or a man? A hermaphrodite? Politics, testing, doping, cover up, legal issue … SCANDAL!

THESE are the news!

Mr. Mbulaeni Mulaudzi is ‘just’ a great champion. He is a winner of an 800m Final in Berlin, he won the men’s race. And he is also from South Africa, like another 800m winner. But no scandal around him. So it’s no news?

South African media reported that Caster Semenya is to receive a house in recognition of her achievement. Good for Caster and family.

A spokesman for the government said that they had also been to the house of fellow world champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, but found that “his family had proper shelter”.

So he doesn’t get a house. No scandal, no house.

Well, for me the fact that Mr. Mulaudzi won the world title IS news. Big news!

This modest man has been running world class for a decade. To list his honours and achievements in this article is a no chance. (Get an All-Access Pass and check his full athlete’s profile among 200,000 other profiles.) But he was missing a global outdoor title; a gold medal; a big win.

Now he has it. And he won it in style; leading from the gun to the finish line. So? Does he get the attention he deserves?

I am glad he finally got his well deserved gold medal. I got to know him well. He was one of our main rivals for years. “Our”, I say, because I was Yuriy Borzakovskiy’s manager during that same decade (until I started focusing on All-Athletics.com this year), and Mbulaeni was always listed as one of the major opponents. So I am glad that a great athlete has become a real champion.

Like I was glad last year for Wilfred Bungei - another great athlete and an intelligent, modest person - when he won the Olympic Gold medal (if it wasn’t for Yuriy…).

And what was the media reaction on a true sportsman finally getting his dream-gold? I have been waiting patiently to see how we treat our champions. Over a month has passed since the World Championships. Of course a few articles here and there about Mulaudzi, but how many stories have we read about Caster Semenya in the meantime? How can we even compare?

Is this really the way the world must go? Couldn’t we learn again to appreciate our greats?

OK, Usain Bolt; but he is a different world. But the rest?

No scandal, no news?

(Attila Spiriev is Publisher and Managing director of All-Athletics.com)

(Photo by Péter Zádor)

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