Ahead of its 20th birthday celebrations, Botswana Swinming Sports Association (BSSA) has received a betrothal dowry, a P3 million sponsorship from DTC Botswana.
On Thursday, the two parties said they have entered into a three-year sponsorship matrimony. This announcement marked a new milestone for a sports association which, though relatively young, has achieved a lot in its short life.
Birthed in October 2004, it took BSSA only four years to send athletes to the Olympics. This was in 2008 in Beijing when it sent Samantha Paxinos and James Kamyuka as the country’s first aqua sports athletes at the Olympics.
Since then, the BSSA has sent athletes to all but one Olympics, the London 2012 Olympics. After missing out in London, BSSA managed to have representatives at all the Olympic games that followed.
This year, they will have a team of two swimmers at the Paris Olympics. These will be 19-year-old Maxine Wegner in women’s 100m freestyle and Adrian Robinson in men’s 100m breaststroke.
These achievements, which are founded in a strong development foundation have now attracted the attention of suitors, none more than DTC Botswana. Now, the BSSA is dreaming of doing better at the next Olympics which will be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
Kgaotsang Mathews, the president of the BSSA, says the sponsorship from DTCB ‘comes right at the right time, at the start of an Olympic Cycle, to support our swimmers to aim to reach qualifying times for 2028 Olympics.’
She reveals that the sponsorship from DTCB ‘is going to support 2 Groups of swimmers.’ These are the development squad made of swimmers between the ages of 12 and 15 years as well as the senior squad which is made up of 10 Athletes.
The BSSA is hopeful that through the sponsorship, it will be able to provide the necessary enablers to support the athletes to thrive. These will include High Performance Camps at the High Performance Center in Pretoria. The camps will be conducted by legendary South African coach Olympic Coach Rocco Meiring.
Mathews went on to add that the support will also go towards providing athletes with strength and conditioning support, sports psychologist support as well as physiotherapy support.
Of further interest, the BSSA president highlights that the support will be extended to coaches. As such, the association intends to also send coaches to camps along with the athletes to ensure they can learn and continue to give athletes the same support they got from the high-performance centre.
“We as the BSSA have therefore had a fruitful workshop at the High Performance Center in Pretoria with our coaches, where they discussed all the technical components that need to be in place for this programme to work.”
“When our swimmers go to the High Performance Center, they will be accompanied by a coach from their club, so that whatever they learn at the HPC is continued when the swimmers return home,” Mathews explains.
For his part, DTC Botswana Managing Director Sedireng Serumola says their aim is ‘to provide support that will not only enhance the performance and strength of our athletes but also prepare them for the prestigious 2028.’
“Through our partnership with the Botswana Sports Swimming Association, we are pioneering a new chapter in the world of sports, where our shared values of dedication, perseverance, and collaboration will shape the future of swimming in Botswana,” the DTC Botswana Managing Director says.
