Burundi: fresh crisis at the National Olympic Committee
Burundi: fresh crisis at the National Olympic Committee. The president of the athletics federation is leading the revolt
Sport News Africa · Author profile ·
Listen to this story
Audio version in preparation · read aloud by your browser meanwhile
Everything has gone wrong in the Burundian Olympic family. As explained in Sport News Africa, the president of the athletics federation had the unwelcome surprise of seeing his list of officials for the Olympic Games changed unilaterally by the NOC. Dieudonné Kwizera has therefore written to the committee president, Lydia Nsekera, to find "a joint solution".
Read also: Burundi: concern over the athletics delegation for the 2024 Games
Five days later, he wrote a fresh letter to Nsekera to set out his disapproval at having had his request "filed away with no action taken [...] Even more serious, you took it upon yourself, without my knowledge, to appoint a coach who was not on the list I sent you. This proves your premeditated intention to cut the athletics federation's officials so that their places can be reassigned to other figures of your choosing".
Aquatics also at odds with the NOC
With four athletes already qualified, athletics is the largest Burundian contingent for Paris. Thanks to that quota, the federation is in theory entitled to five officials in the delegation. However, because of this problem with the NOC, president Kwizera has announced that he is giving up on travelling to Paris "in solidarity with my technicians and officials who are victims of your injustice, which I refuse to condone".
It is a rare gesture, and it shows the open conflict with the Committee and its president, Lydia Nsekera. Other federations, notably aquatics, have also raised similar problems over the allocation of places in the delegations, as well as the financial opacity surrounding the NOC.
Far from being a celebration, the build-up to the Games now highlights the governance problems at the Burundian Olympic Committee and its all-powerful president, known for having been the first woman to head a football federation.