Tlhabano-David calls for support of Para athletes
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday February 20, 2023 16:00
The Commonwealth Alumnus Tlhabano-David told Sport Monitor that as a counselling and sport psychologist, usually she works with athletes at club level at the University of Botswana and also with the national team. “I was with the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games team together with Dr Tshepang Tshube. I was the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games team sport psychologist even during preparations. It was particularly during the qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 because we had a big provisional team and part of that team we had the Paralympics Association of Botswana (PASSOBO) team,” she said.
Tlhabano-David said she realised that when it came to the other teams, she was tasked with the responsibility of providing psychological support. She knew that the PASSOBO team was also in camp but in a different place. She was, however, confused if they were also part of the team that was to receive her support because in the initial list they were not included. “I had to ask and I was informed that they were part of the team. I realised that it was not intentional but somehow they can be forgotten because they camped in a different place. Even though other teams like judo and boxing were in different places, their managers were able to contact me that they needed help,” she said.
Tlhabano-David realised that she did not have a relationship with PASSBO team and that disturbed her. She said even when she attended training for athletics, boxing and others, she would find PASSOBO training, and some athletes came in from Mochudi while others were already gone. “For me it felt lonely, because it was them and their coach while everyone is gone. I did not feel good. I felt we are letting down athletes with individual disabilities. It was around the same time that Onkabetse Nkobolo was injured. I had worked with him since 2017 and we were making progress; he was really open to the psychological support,” Tlhabano-David said. She said that brought it home because he was one of the athletes that they have worked together for a long time. “Interacting with him I realised that there is not much known about Para sport in this country, such that even if you have athletes that are injured, they are out of sport but we know that in their hearts they like sport, but they do not know if they still play sport,” she said.
Tlhabano-David said she felt it was her responsibility and other Batswana to do something about being inclusive in sport. She said that is by adapting sport to accommodate people with different disabilities so that they are well represented. “Usually when we have main stream teams on camp everybody knows, even the media writes a lot about them. That same coverage does not focus on Para athletes. We have to do better, doing a Para sport awareness day can be one way all of us can do that,” she said. For his part, Nkobolo said he was invited to motivate Para athletes and talk about his life on the wheelchair. “We face challenges in our daily lives. The society views us differently and it is not easy. Some people understand us but in some instances we struggle to access offices,” he said. The event was held under the theme: ‘Supporting sport and general physical activity opportunities for people with disability’.
Other activities for the day included aerobics, adaptive track and field events and adaptive boxing.