This article was written in conjunction with Ted Knight, a former England & Great Britain U-23 K1 kayaker, who is something of an expert on the sport of canoe slalom. He revealed to me the real story behind a would-be fairytale.
When I first saw Benjamin Boukpeti, a kayaker from Togo, I was less than impressed. He was charging towards that crucial first upstream gate in Monday morning’s Men's K1 qualification event, only to promptly drop deep in the eddy below.Images of "Eddie the Eagle" and "Eric the Eel" came rushing into my head.
I was already starting to dream up the new nickname. "Benjy the Boater" or "Bouk the Blowout" seemed most apt.
He looked, if you excuse the pun, well out of his depth.
Boukpeti—a man who qualified for the Olympics thanks to the IOC's regulation stipulating there must be at least one competitor from each continent—struggled...badly.
The times don’t lie. He ended that first run attempt with just one man, Atanis Nikolovski of Macedonia, behind him.
Then something remarkable happened. In a stunning display of sheer force and aggression, Boukpeti did the impossible and posted the fastest time of the second run. Spectators and rivals alike looked on in disbelief. Did the man from Togo really just do that?
Boukpeti ended the day in eighth place, comfortably qualifying for the semifinals. He even found himself ahead of Britain’s very own Olympic silver medalist, Campbell Walsh.
Finals day arrived, and after a good night’s sleep, most in the sporting world had again forgotten Boukpeti. All eyes were focused on the genuine contenders—Walsh, Grimm, Lefevre, et al. With a much tougher course set, surely Benjamin’s speed of the day before was just a splash in the water.
But Boukpeti made sure he was not to be forgotten. With two more runs of strength and determination, the 27-year-old fought his way to the podium and reveled in the delight of being Togo’s first ever Olympic medal winner.
What separates him from Eddie or Eric, it seems, is the fact that he actually is rather good. A true Olympic hero, even.
Stop the story there—it is a fairytale. But unfortunately, there are a few details still to be covered.
A little further investigation reveals Boukpeti was actually born in Lagny, France, and lives in Toulouse. He trains with the French team, and was receiving coaching from the South Africans during the tournament in Beijing.
The man has only been to Togo once in his life—and he represented France as a junior.
How is it, then, that he ended up sporting the Togolese national colours at the Opening Ceremony, and even proudly carried their flag?
It turns out that whilst his mother is French, his father is from Togo, and under Olympic rules that is enough to make him eligible to represent the African nation. The advantage of changing nationalities is obvious. It made qualifying for the Olympics much easier.
If Boukpeti had stuck with his country of birth, he would have found himself competing against the 2004 Olympic Champion Benoit Peschier, the former two-time World Champion Fabien Lefevre, and the current World Champion Sebastien Combot—all for just the one Olympic place each country is allowed
In Togo, he had no opposition.
He breezed through the African Championship—beating a British man trying the same trick in representing Nigeria—and therefore gained an otherwise unobtainable Olympic berth.
So, it seems that the early contender for "Darling of the 2008 Olympics" is, in fact, just another example of the rather less beautiful side of international sport.
Like those before him—such as Francis Obikwelu (who ditched Nigeria in favour of Portugal), Stephen Cherono (who swapped Kenya for Qatar, even changing his name to Saif Saaeed Shaheen in the process)—Boukpeti has simply contributed to adding nationality to the list of things one must doubt when watching the Olympic Games.
He may not have been "Benjy the Boater," but when it comes to symbolising the Olympic spirit, it seems he is no "Eric the Eel" either.
Benjamin Boukpeti the Epitome of the Olympic Spirit?
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8 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
John Houmes 10 months ago
Agreed that living in France makes it seem like paddling for Togo is a shortcut, but he does have Togolese blood in him. And though he was sloppy early on, he was good enough to win the bronze.
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Alex Dimond 10 months ago
Thanks for the comments John. What you say is a good point, but you have to wonder at one point his Togolese heritage became important to him. If you were cynical, you might say it was only after he realised it would be the easiest way of qualifying for the Olympics.
As for being good enough - well, if the IOC allowed more than one kayaker from each nation to compete (allowing countries like France and Germany to send more of their elite paddlers) then it is highly debatable he would have made it anyway near the final.
However, fair play to him for getting the job done - you can only beat those you are up against!
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Papou Leneutre 10 months ago
Well, with these "if the IOC did this", "If the IOC did that", lots of weird things could happen in Beijing. Even if more than one kayaker per country is allowed to compete (say two), there will always be some kind of injustice, as some very good athletes will be left out, while poor athletes from other countries will still be allowed to compete. The IOC has to draw a line somewhere (1 athlete per country), and they did. the idea is that the olympics is not only about sports, but also about ALL nations coming together and thus, the African continent should not be left out;; even if we are under-developed and poor, we have the right to participate, even symbolically.
As an african myself, I in fact believe Benjamin has been extremely 'smart' to find a way to get his ticket to beijing. That's his right. Why do you think there are four african nations in the soccer quarterfinals ? Simply because 99% of the african players play the european leagues all year long. They play with the best of the best, but when it comes to international competitions, they bring back the expertise they have acquired overseas. There's nothing wrong with that. Would you say that is unfair ? Of course not.
Walt Disney should write a fairy-tale kind of movie about this guy, similar to "Cool runnings", where a group of 4 jamaicans end up competing in the Winter olympics (Bobsleigh). I am very proud of him.
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Alex Dimond 10 months ago
You have every right to be proud of him Papou, he has achieved something incredible. Not quite sure if it could make for a better film than Cool Runnings (which is, after all, the best film ever) but nevertheless...
Agree with what you say about Benjamin being 'smart' - he didn't make the rules, just used them to his advantage. Nothing wrong with that. However, I think you have to admit that the primary aim of the IOC should be to get the BEST athletes at the Olympic, not just to get representation from the MOST number of countries. Because of the rules, most of the top 20 had to watch from home - each country can only have 1 kayaker - is this really in the best interests of a competitive Olympic sport?
Now, if all the best kayakers in the world had been there and Benjamin had still won a medal, I would say fair play to him. As it is, he simply serves to highlight a few of the flaws in the Olympic organisation of this particular event.
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Papou Leneutre 10 months ago
Alex, the 'best athletes' do compete against one another, each year, but at a different event, usually called "World champioship of ...". This so-called olympic spirit is what makes it different from the regular "world championships". The "Olympic" games are (and must be) a little bit different from a rugular world championship. Even in Greece 2000 years ago, it was more than just sport; there was some politics attached to it, as competitors were representing their region, their tribe , etc. Those who couldn't attend these olympics in Beijing still had their chance to prove to the world that as far as the sport (kayaking) is concerned, they are better than Benjamin; and they did prove that prior to the olympics, no question.
By the way, if only the best athletes had to attend the Olympic games, o my god, we africans wouldn't even be represented there, except for a few Kenyan runners. In such case, the Olympic games would look like a gathering of "athletes from rich nations", as more than half of the countries on earth wouldn't have a chance to be included in the opening ceremony parade. Is this what we want the Olympic games to be ? I don't think so.
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Alex Dimond 10 months ago
Papou, I wasn't for a minute trying to suggest that only the very best athletes should go to Olympics - of course nations from every country should be represented. I am just saying that in an event like kayaking, where the majority of the world's best paddlers come from a minority of nations, it does not make much sense to limit each country to 1 entry - thus depriving legitimate medal hopefuls of having the opportunity to compete.
Read the article - look at the quality of athlete France had to leave at home (Lefevre won their entry) because of the IOC rules! Arguably, the French trials were more competitive than the main Olympic event - does that sound remotely sensible?
All I was trying to say is that while of course the Olympics should have representatives from around the globe in all sports, the priority of the IOC should be to ensure that its rules enable all of the very best competitors to be there too.
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Papou Leneutre 10 months ago
I agree with you. Adding more valuable competitors is certainly the right thing to do, while symbolically allowing athletes from all corners of the world to compete. I have seen numerous americans/australians/etc taking part in the same swimming final. Why is it in kayaking that each country is allowed only one competitor ? Indeed, this doesn't make sense to me.
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Stan King 10 months ago
I don't see anything wrong with what Benj did. As for the competition in France, Fabian beat out the rest, and in the semis, Benj beat Fabian, so in a sense, it's a "any given Sunday" scenario. Of those that made it to the Olympics, Benj earned the bronze, and any perceived inequality due to the depth of the pool of athletes from certain countries should be laid at the feet of the IOC, not one particular athlete who took advantage of an opportunity. You can take a cynical view and say he didn't deserve to be there, but he played by the rules, got there, and medalled, so I think he d**n well deserved the spot.
As for which country receives the credit, I'm pleased as can be for the Togolese - they're going to be much prouder of this achievement than the French would have been. If you started counting athletes who live and train (and even earn their multi-million dollar living) in the USA and then compete for other countries, you'd never finish. You might as well say that US senatorial candidates have to actually be from the state which elects them. If an athlete claims a country, and the country claims the athlete, that's all that's needed.
And it's the countries that compete in the Olympics, not the best individual athletes. Always has been, and I think that's the way it should be. When Michael Phelps wins, I'm more excited by it because he's an American. If he were just a guy from Maryland, or the representative of Baltimore, I wouldn't identify with him and wouldn't feel the same pride. As it is, I can chant "U S A", grinning maniacally with tons of other people who think we had something to do with his winning 8 golds. Take that away, and the Olympics loses much of its audience and its purpose.
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