Prior to 1992, Olympic basketball was limited to amateur players, and the United States often won the gold medal. Towards the end of the 1980s, other teams emerged, and the United States began to decline. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the Soviet Union defeated the United States, prompting it to assemble an unbeatable team, dubbed the “Dream Team.” After FIBA changed the rules in 1989 to allow professional players to participate, the United States entered the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with the Dream Team, featuring basketball legends of the era such as Jordan and Johnson, and easily won the gold medal.
However, the Dream Team’s greatest achievement was spreading basketball around the world, creating future rivals whom they later defeated. The Dream Team was so dominant and inspiring that it taught the world how to play basketball with skill and showed that any nation can achieve the impossible when it sets its mind to it. The dream created the greatest team not only in basketball but in all of sports. It was the result of a carefully planned vision, supported by the U.S. administration. Ninety percent of the people around the world became aware of the country of Cape Verde after its football team participated in the Olympics for the first time in history and nearly eliminated Argentina, the multiple world champions, just days ago.
Cape Verde is the smallest country participating in the Olympics. The total size of the country is just 4,033 square kilometers and it has a population roughly one-third that of Kuwait. It achieved remarkable results by drawing with Spain, the European champions, as well as Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. This brought widespread recognition to the country and indescribable joy to its small population.
Cape Verde’s qualification for the Round of 32 is an unprecedented achievement for the smallest country to reach this stage in World Cup history. Its match against Argentina, the world champions, was described as one of the greatest World Cup matches ever. Kuwait achieved many sporting victories over the past forty years. By 1986, it had become the most successful team in the history of the Gulf Cup, having won ten titles. Kuwait’s sporting fortunes were severely impacted by the Iraqi invasion of 1990. The national team later returned to win the Gulf Cup in 1996 and reached the semi-finals of the Asian Cup that same year.
World-renowned shooter Fehaid Al-Deehani played a pivotal role in raising Kuwait’s profile, achieving the greatest individual accomplishment in Kuwaiti sporting history by winning bronze medals in shooting at the 2000 Sydney and 2012 London Olympics. He then went on to win gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Kuwait also made its mark in powerboat racing when Yousef Al-Abdali won the F2 World Championship title in 2015. In an unprecedented achievement in equestrian sports, at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, Nadia Mohammad Al-Mutawa became the first Kuwaiti and the first woman to win a gold medal in show jumping at the Asian Games.
Her sister, Jamila, won the silver medal, and Sheikha Bara’a Al-Sabah secured the bronze, marking a historic achievement in a sport traditionally dominated by men. In Kuwait, we dream of returning to regional and international sporting success. Achieving this dream requires a political decision, followed by a clear vision, a well-designed plan, and effective execution with the support of international experts. No party should be allowed to interfere in the work of these teams. What enabled the Egyptian, Moroccan, and Cape Verdean teams to reach unprecedented levels in the World Cup despite the enormous obstacles they faced? The technical director is the leader of the battle, the one who sets the plans, and decides who plays, and when. The technical director is the CEO of the team, the one who receives the highest rewards for success, and the first to be dismissed when the team fails.
By Ahmad alsarraf
email: [email protected]
email: [email protected]
