[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="How to help Saudi athletes improve show down the road" ids="91756,91755,91754"] ALTHOUGH the government spends huge amounts of money on sports, the performance of Saudi athletes who participated in the Rio Olympics was disappointing. Saudi sports committees and federations should work together with pertinent government agencies such as the ministries of health and education to find out why the players failed to put up good performance and how to fix this problem in the future. Al-Riyadh daily met with some sports officials and asked them about the reasons behind the Kingdom's miserable show in Rio de Janeiro and what remedies they can suggest to save the future of Saudi sports. Abdullatif Al-Hareesh, deputy director general of Sports Affairs, said first of all it is important to understand the difference between an athlete and a budding talent. "We need to search for talented young men and women and prepare them well for participation in future Olympics. Improving sports cannot be achieved by the efforts of a single authority, it needs the cooperation and collaboration of several concerned agencies. Certain organizations have good infrastructure and they should open their doors to other agencies to benefit from the available facilities. We need to increase the number of training hours and expose athletes to different sports venues," he explained. Spending on talented athletes is essential because it will pay off in the future and help in creating a Saudi hero. Big projects should be implemented to nourish the talent of Saudi athletes. Hussam Al-Qurashi, secretary-general of Saudi Olympics Committee, suggested that all sports facilities that were constructed by the government should be put to optimum use as some of these facilities have not been utilized. Sports facilities inside schools, colleges and universities should be thrown open to all athletes. "A hero is not born overnight. Compare the performance of British athletes in 1992 and today. At the time, they put up a very poor show but they overcame all the challenges they encountered in the years following their participation in 1992 Olympics. The British sports authorities worked with other agencies in the country to improve the performance of British athletes and they did succeed," Al-Qurashi said. Dr. Khalid Al-Kheraiji, director general of supervision at the Ministry of Education, said the search for talent should actually begin at the elementary school. Physical education teachers should know how to discover and take care of a talented student. They should also create an environment conducive for practicing different sports activities. Hadi Sou'an, who won the first-ever Olympic medal for the Kingdom when he was given the 400 meters hurdles silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said the media should launch campaigns to encourage children to engage in sports activities all the time. "Unfortunately, the majority of Saudis adopt a sedentary lifestyle and tend not to exercise a lot. Children should learn to enjoy exercise and different sports activities. I think the media can play a pivotal role in changing the way Saudis view sports," said Sou'an, who is now a physical education supervisor at the Ministry of Education.
