The sunshine and shadow of Zimbabwean sport
Fifty years ago Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe, was banned from the Olympics because of its discriminatory policies. Now the IOC President is from there. Philip Barker tells the remarkable story
There was joy and emotion in her native Zimbabwe when Kirsty Coventry formally accepted the keys to Olympic House to begin her term as International Olympic Committee President in Lausanne.
Yet 50 years ago, in the same city, another Olympic meeting signalled one of the darkest sporting moments for her homeland, then known as Rhodesia. They were banned from the Olympics after a turbulent decade of political intrigue.
“Africa is today at midcourse, in transition from the Africa of Yesterday to the Africa of Tomorrow,” Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie had declared in the 1960s.
Southern Rhodesia was then a British colony. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, it took part as Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. By 1964, Nyasaland was independent as Malawi, but the National Olympic Committee of Southern Rhodesia competed in Tokyo. Northern Rhodesia also attended, but before the Games were over, they too were independent as Zambia.
Many “new” African nations called for the principle of “one person, one vote,” but in Southern Rhodesia, income and education were used to determine suffrage, a policy which excluded much of the majority ethnic African population.
Ian Smith, elected Prime Minister in 1964, refused to discuss “majority rule”. In November 1965, he broke ties with Britain, announcing a “Unilateral Declaration of Independence”. Rhodesia were not invited to the inaugural All African Games in 1965.
The United Nations designated Rhodesia an “illegal state,” imposing economic sanctions. Meanwhile, forces opposed to Smith’s Government raided from across the borders, in what became known as “The Bush War”.
Rhodesia’s other neighbours South Africa were largely ostracised as a result of their apartheid policy of racial segregation.
Other African nations had come together to form a Supreme Council for African Sport, an influential network recognised by the more political Organisation of African Unity. There were threats of a boycott at Mexico City 1968, when IOC President Avery Brundage suggested that South Africa might take part in the Olympics provided they demonstrated sporting integration. It was hinted that African-American members of the United States team would join any walkout.
The possibility of Rhodesian participation proved almost as incendiary. Their sporting landscape was complicated because Rhodesian teams played in South Africa’s domestic cricket and rugby union competitions.
SCSA President Abraham Ordia claimed South Africa extended their “pernicious philosophy to neighbouring territories, notably Rhodesia.” Many others agreed. “It would be an affront to the United Nations for the so-called Rhodesian flag to appear at the Olympic Village,” said a Kenyan news agency.
The Rhodesian National Olympic Committee named a team of 17 for Mexico 1968, including Africans Mathias Kanda, who had run the marathon at Tokyo 1964, and middle-distance runner Bernard Dzoma, hoping for his Olympic debut.
This became impossible after UN resolution 253 called on nations to “Prevent the entry into their territories, of any person travelling on a Southern Rhodesian passport,” and “Take all possible measures to prevent the entry of persons whom they have reason to believe to be ordinarily resident in Southern Rhodesia.”
The future Olympic participation of Rhodesia was destined to dominate many IOC meetings in the following years. In September 1971, the IOC Executive Board met an SCSA delegation. Ordia demanded an IOC enquiry into Rhodesian sport. The IOC also received the RNOC who “stated again they were interested in sport and not in politics and were even ready to compete without a flag. They had both black and white athletes in their teams.”
IOC records record that Brundage “convinced the Africans that, if the RNOC would use the same flag and hymn they had used before, they would withdraw their objections.”
The team was to be styled “Southern Rhodesia”. For all ceremonies, a blue ensign with the union flag in the top left canton, used in 1964, would be raised to the strains of the British national anthem. It was an agreement which effectively turned the clock back to before UDI.
There was also to be an IOC commission of enquiry sent to Rhodesia after Munich 1972. Brundage believed the matter was now solved, but a rude awakening awaited that summer., The OAU called for all African nations to withdraw if Rhodesians were allowed to compete. Brundage arrived in Munich “surprised to find all the controversy concerning Rhodesian participation.”
IOC Executive Board member Sir Ade Ademola, a senior Nigerian lawyer, met African National Olympics Committees and found that “some were waiting for instructions from their respective governments.”
Brundage responded “If teams are withdrawn for political reasons, it is obvious that these NOCs have lost their independence. The only victims would be the competitors.”
An IOC statement was issued which hoped “all African NOCs will convince their several governments of the desirability of their keeping to the resolution. they themselves tabled last September “
Meanwhile, a Rhodesian team of nearly 50 members arrived in West Germany, including Dzoma, who had missed out at Mexico City 1968. “We are happy you are here because there have been many difficulties and now they are over,” Munich 1972 Organising Committee official Walter Wulfing told them.
Village Mayor Walter Troger welcomed “our friends from Southern Rhodesia” as the pre-UDI flag was raised at the official welcome. “The athletes themselves did not appear to resent the playing of God Save the Queen,” reported Glen Byrom in the Rhodesia Herald.
Nonetheless, Byrom’s newspaper included readers’ letters, one signed “Interested Olympic Spectator” which accused the team of “adopting a hypocritical attitude which fools nobody.”
RNOC officials carefully avoided political statements. “You are wasting your time asking political questions, we are not going to answer them,” RNOC chairman Robert Grant-Stuart said.
However, comments attributed to Chef de Mission Ossie Plaskitt, later denied, were widely quoted and even cited in IOC minutes as evidence of lack of sincerity. “We are ready to participate under any flag, be it the flag of the boy scouts or the Moscow flag,” he said. “But everyone knows very well that we are Rhodesians and will always remain Rhodesians.”
They had travelled on Olympic identity cards to which had been added the words “Southern Rhodesian citizen - British subject”. They did not carry passports. Although permitted at the time under Olympic regulations, this was insufficient for African politicians who demanded verification of nationality by passport. “It was the technicality with which to scuttle them.” observed Allen Guttmann, Brundage’s biographer. “After hours of debate it was decided that Rhodesia did not comply with the terms of the invitation.” Brundage was distraught when the voting went 36-31 against Rhodesia, with three abstentions.
Brundage revealed his true feelings, describing the Rhodesian affair as “naked political blackmail” during a memorial service after the terrorist attack on the Israeli team. “The reference to Rhodesia was intended to fortify the African sports leaders in their efforts to become free from their political masters,” Brundage explained to IOC members later.
In 1973, new IOC President Lord Killanin finally ordered a commission to determine whether the RNOC “was operating in accordance with IOC rules and if there was racial discrimination in sport.” Led by Brazilian Sylvio de Magalhaes Padilha, it did not include any African members which caused “bitterness”.
The report was not delivered until the 1975 IOC Session in Lausanne. “Lately the sports life of the country has been moving towards non-discrimination although it often comes up against the political side of the government.” concluded Padhila. “In our enquiries we came across complete contradictions. Although all the official sides of sport assured us there was no discrimination, others stated the opposite. If there are multi-racial clubs and associations, there are also more restricted ones. The mentality has however been changing for some time and sports leaders are moving towards non-discrimination, which they sincerely desire.”
At the session In Lausanne, the SCSA presented a protest signed by 19 African NOCs alleging that the RNOC “practises racial discrimination against Africans by not allowing multiracial competitions and by failing to guarantee equality of training.”
Ordia concluded that “There is no doubt that racial discrimination and segregation have retarded the development of white and black sport in Rhodesia.”
When the vote was taken, the RNOC was banned by 41 votes to 26. “However, contact will be maintained to ensure the eventual return to the Olympic movement,” an IOC statement said.
Exile lasted until April 1980, when Zimbabwe finally achieved independence with agreement on majority rule. Robert Mugabe, later to receive the Olympic Order, was elected Prime Minister.
It was only three months before the Moscow Games opened but an Olympic return was a priority. New Zealander Sir Lance Cross called on his IOC Executive Board colleagues to invite Zimbabwe to Moscow 1980. A team of 23 duly took part and the crowning moment was gold in women’s hockey.
Crowds flocked to welcome the team, dubbed the “Golden Girls” home. It remained Zimbabwe’s Olympic peak until Athens 2004. when the new IOC President won the first of her two gold medals in the pool. By then, Mugabe was President of an increasingly authoritarian regime, prompting cricketers Henry Olonga and Andy Flower to wear black armbands during the 2003 World Cup, protesting the “death of democracy”.
They left the country amid concerns about their safety. The extent of sporting autonomy was challenged more recently during Coventry’s tenure as Minister for Sport, In 2019 the International Cricket Council banned Zimbabwe Cricket and in 2022, FIFA briefly suspended the country’s football federation. Coventry stood down from the post in March 2025 after her election as IOC President.
Philip Barker is the editor-in-chief of the International Society of Olympic Historians
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