Political Powerhouses in Sports
In an interesting article by Charles Clarey for The New York Times (which was reproduced in The East African Nov 24th- Dec 1st 2008), Barrack Obama is compared to current presidents and prime ministers or heads of governments who have strong sports pedigree and others who profess a keen interest in sports.
Having talked about this a previous blog article, I found it necessary to highlight some of the interesting bits I found and even discovered like;
• New Japanese PM -Taro Ado-who was an Olympian in 1976 Montreal as a skeet shooter;
• President of Nauru ( near Hawaii) – Marcus Stephen- who is an accomplished weightlifter winning 5 gold medals at Commonwealth Games and a silver at the World Championships as well as being an Olympian.
In the same article, its noted that Obama has buddies who he can play hoops with including Tanzanian Pres. Jakaya Kikwete, Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeldt and Montenegro PM Milo Djukanovic as well as Chinese PM Wen Jiabao who’s known for a wicked left-hand shot . That would make an interesting 3-on-3 team with 2 reserves!
The article even quoted that our own PM Raila Odinga played some club football (with Luo Union –later renamed Re-Union ^^?) and is an ardent football fan.
President-elect ( I’m getting tired of these terms……) Obama is also warned against engaging in any duels with such people as current Russian PM Vladimir Putin a well known Judoka (black belt too) and hunter, very much an outdoor and macho guy.
Check the article out here or in your weekly East African paper from the vendor.
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