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A Bumpy Road to the Olympics - Training in Guinea Bissau
The Montague Paratrooper fold-up bicycle has traveled with me all over the world. I first used it in 2011 when I was driving trucks across America and preparing for the USA Triathlon Age Group Championships and the 2012 Ironman South Africa. Later, I took the Montague Paratrooper with me to China, where I continued training for the US Masters Swimming National Championships and the 2017 FINA World Championships. Now, I am in Guinea Bissau training for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It has been a bumpy road. Let me explain.
As I write this, I am in a lot of pain and can barely move. My right side, from my neck, down to my shoulder down to my lower back is in pain. Deep breathing is difficult. I can’t sit or lay down comfortably. I am injured. Consensus around me is that after a week of riding the Paratrooper up and down the rocky and bumpy roads of Guinea Bissau, my body has suffered. In many ways, because of the condition of the roads, my body, like the country, is broke. My injury is symbolic of the injured Guinea Bissau. Just as the deplorable road conditions have arrested development in Guinea Bissau, so, too, it has hurt my Olympic training.
The bumpy road is a metaphor for my journey to compete as the oldest swimmer in Olympic history for my ancestral homeland. Back in January 2020, I was the first of my family to return to our Balanta people after 250 years of enslavement and ethnocide in the United States. During that visit, I met with the Guinea Bissau Minister of Sport Mr. Dionisio Pereira to discuss a program to bring African American professional athletes to their ancestral homelands during the “Decade of Return”. The Minister agreed to write a letter of special invitation to legendary multiple Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee who happens to have Balanta ancestry.
Siphiwe Baleka and Guinea Bissau Minister of Sport Mr. Dionisio Pereira
During the meeting, the possibility of swimming for and representing Guinea Bissau was discussed and I was both thrilled and honored. I returned to the United States with the renewed childhood dream of making it to the Olympics. Whereas in 1992 I was trying to become the first African American on the United States Olympic Swimming team, now twenty-eight years later, I was trying to become both the first African American to gain citizenship to the African country of the ancestor who survived the middle passage from Africa AND become the first ever Olympic Swimmer in that country of Guinea Bissau.
As the Olympics were scheduled for the summer of 2020, I needed to do two things: 1) secure my eligibility to compete for Guinea Bissau, which meant obtaining citizenship; and 2) develop a training plan. Upon my return to the United States, I sent the following letter on February 18, 2020 to the Guinea Bissau Olympic Committee:
With Minister Pereira’s assurance, I had no doubt about obtaining my citizenship. After all, I had scientific proof - the dna test - showing that I am a descendent of the Balanta people. Just as I began to make arrangements, the coronavirus situation in Wuhan, China turned into a full-blown pandemic, leading to a complete lockdown in most places including Drury’s Breech Pool, where I was training every morning.
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and not wanting to let my Olympic dream slip away, a moment of inspiration hit: what if I could use my friend’s outdoor swim spa? After checking it out, I grew confident that, at the very least, I could maintain some level of swimming fitness.
But then the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games got canceled, and the whole thing seemed to be up in the air. But this event actually resulted in my favor. The Olympics were rescheduled for the summer of 2021, giving me an extra year to train and the opportunity to compete at the symbolic age of 50, and the International Olympic Committee *IOC) and FINA changed their rules removing the requirement of competing in the Gwanju World Championships in order to be eligible for a Universality Placement. This meant that there were no rules or technical obstacles on my eligibility to participate. All that needed to be done was to complete my naturalization for citizenship to Guinea Bissau and once completed, have the Guinea Bissau Olympic Committee submit my application for the Universality Place. Pretty Simple.
And then the road became bumpy. Very bumpy.
After repeated inquires to the Olympic Committee about my citizenship, finally in NOVEMBER - NINE MONTHS LATER - I received this letter:
I was more confident than ever, and my contacts informed me that my citizenship would be completed soon. Thus, I booked a ticket and returned to Guinea Bissau a month later at the end of December expecting to sign my paperwork and become an official citizen of Guinea Bissau. But of course, that’s not what happened because of the bump in the road.
Upon arrival, it became clear that my paperwork for citizenship was not prepared and somehow the paperwork (and responsibility for it) was now lost in some black hole of Guinea Bissau bureaucracy. I was growing frustrated. Did they not understand the potential of this opportunity? Sports Illustrated had already did a cover story and Hollywood producers were now interested in making a movie about my Olympic journey. This is massive, free, international publicity for this small country of 2 million. I was already playing my role as Olympic Sports Ambassador. Why were they dragging their feet on this?
There was a regime change in 2020 so I met with the new Minister of Sport, Florentino Fernando Dias. He, like his predecessor, assured me there would be no problem obtaining citizenship. Encouraged, I then went to the Ledger Hotel which has a 25 meter pool with no lane lines or lane markings, to discuss my plan for training. My original, and simple plan was this: since I was going to be representing Guinea Bissau, and since the Ledger Hotel had a pool I could train in and a bunch of EMPTY rooms, I thought it best to make the Ledger Hotel my training camp. I asked them to give me a suite to make my headquarters. That way I could be comfortable, minimize all kinds of risks, and have a suitable place to meet people AND teach swim lessons leading up to the Olympics. While the Ledger Hotel management had no problem allowing me to use the pool for training, they balked at the idea of giving me a suite for three months . . . . After all, they were foreigners in Guinea Bissau here to make money. . . . .
I calculated that it would cost about $4,000 to pay for the suite at the discount rate they were offering, but it was $4,000 I didn’t have and, at any rate, if I was going to have to pay, I wanted it to benefit the people of Guinea Bissau, not the foreign business men. So I decided to do a fundraiser and Renovate Headquarters and Provide Olympic Training Center for Guinea Bissau Olympic Swim Team.
As soon as I returned to the United States in January, 2021, I appeared on Access Daily and intensified my fundraising.
I kept pressing forward, trusting my Ancestor and the many assurances I was receiving, that everything would be worked out. I started receiving numerous interview and project requests, and all of them were just waiting on my citizenship and placement on the Guinea Bissau Olympic Team to become official. So I kept waiting, and waiting and waiting while preparing to lead two different groups back to Guinea Bissau starting May 11 for the Decade of Return Initiative.
Growing ever more frustrated with each delay which hampered my ability to sign deals and raise funds, finally I caught a break. On April 14, 2021, my fiftieth birthday, the Minister of Justice sent the following letter:
It says:
"REPUBLIC OF GUINE-BISSAU JUSTICE MINISTRY THE MINISTER ORDER N. * 10 / GMJ / 2021
Considering the request submitted by the Secretary of State for Sports, through the letter received on 01/21/2021, it is addressed to the Honorable Prime Minister to intervene to expedite the granting of Guinean nationality by naturalization to the American citizen, Siphiwe Ka Baleka Bey El, invoking national interest.
Thinking of being an individual who discovered that his ancestors are of Guinean origin through DNA tests carried out in the United States of America, on the one hand, and who intends to represent Guinea-Bissau in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, it gives interest national authority invoked by the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, on the other. Considering the guidance given by the Honorable Prime Minister ordering the referral of the same process, on an urgent basis, to the Minister of Justice, for his opinion.
Having analyzed the legal provisions applied in this matter, in particular Article 18 of the Guinean Nationality Regulation, granting the Minister of Justice the power to authorize the waiver of presentation of any document that must instruct the application for nationality submitted by a foreigner, provided that there are no doubts about the verification of the requirements that this document is intended to prove.
Considering, furthermore, that the Government may grant Guinean nationality with exemption from the conditions of integration in Guinese society and residence for at least six years to all those who provide or are called upon to provide relevant services to the Guinean State in the national development process, under article 9, n. 3 of the Nationality Law.
The Minister of Justice determines the following: And Mr. Siphiwe Ka Baleka Bey El, an American citizen who applied for the granting of Guinean nationality by naturalization, waived the need to present the following documents that should instruct this process: Residence Permit, Declaration of Conformity and Certificate of Residence issued by the Foreigners and Borders of Guinea-Bissau, Criminal Record issued by the Ministry of Justice, Declaration of Good Civic Behavior issued by the Municipal Chamber of Bissau, Declaration of Integration into the Guinean Society issued by the Directorate-General for Culture and Criminal Record issued by the competent North American Authorities. Also, and I exempt you from paying the fees listed in the current Table. Fulfill yourself
Bissau,
04/14/2021 The Minister, Fernando Mendonca"
I was told that with this letter from the Minister of Justice clearing my path to citizenship, the matter would be taken up at the Cabinet meeting a day later on Thursday and I would have my citizenship and passport number on the following Monday, April 18th. Except that didn’t happen. Another bump in the road.
When Thursday came, there was some reason that prevented my case from being introduced in the Cabinent but that it would surely happen the following Thursday. Except there was another bump Thursday April 21, Thursday April 28, and Thursday May 5. By the time of my departure for Guinea Bissau, I still had not received my citizenship nor officially named to Guinea Bissau’s Olympic Team. I had concluded only one contract and let a lot of opportunities sitting on the table waiting. I left for Guinea Bissau with little money and just the faith that my ancestors and a few good people in Guinea Bissau that were doing all they could for me, would somehow make things work out.
NOT BEING TREATED AS SOMEONE OF NATIONAL INTEREST.
Not once before or since my arrival to Guinea Bissau has the Olympic Committee or the Ministry of Sport asked me how my training is going or if I need anything. They have never communicated to me any of their plans after I am named to the team nor any support I will receive. I have had to finance this entire thing myself.
I knew that one of my biggest challenges would be making it to the Olympics healthy and in the best condition to perform. For starters, I am a 50 year old athlete. My body doesn’t work the way it used to and I have to train differently. Meanwhile, in order to have a more authentic experience, and truly represent the people of Guinea Bissau, I decided to do my training in Guinea Bissau instead of America. I WANTED to move from the first world environment of America to the third world environment of Guinea Bissau to be able to claim that I trained and prepared in Guinea Bissau. This meant leaving a level of comfort and switching from one level of technology and nutrition to another. To represent Guinea Bissau, I wanted to swim in her pools, eat her food, be with her people.
However, I expected the Olympic Committee to be responsible for me as THEIR OLYMPIC ATHLETE. You can’t just take a rare flower and pluck it, remove it from one environment and one kind of soil, and transplant it in another environment and expect it to thrive with no adjustment. I am in the adjustment phase and the road is become bumpy.
The failure to provide me with a suite at the Ledger Hotel required that I find other accommodations and transportation to the pool. The obvious solution was the Montague Paratrooper. It only cost the $150 I paid to bring it on the plane and allowed me freedom and independence. But this has now led to an injury that is disrupting my training. Had the Olympic Committee been even remotely concerned with its newest ATHLETE, they could have at least arranged a car to pick me up and take me to the pool each morning. They didn’t even ask me how my training was going or if I needed anything….
And still now, the Cabinent has not raised my case. Last Thursday, the President of Sao Tome came for a State Visit and several cabinet members decided to cancel the regular Cabinent meeting in order to travel to the Bubaque Islands for a dinner. . . . . Such are the bumby roads of Guinea Bissau.
So now I am stuck in a kind of limbo - waiting for citizenship, waiting to be named to the Guinea Bissau Olympic Team, waiting to issue a press release to kick off another round of fundraising, waiting for investors and sponsosrs to sign contracts, and now, waiting for my body to heal so that I can continue training. And now I have to find a way to pay for a massage therapist and the medicine I need because the Ministry of Sport and the Olympic Committee aren’t really taking care of me as someone of NATIONAL INTEREST. But the people are…..
The other night, the ancestors showed me the meaning of all this - they said:
“You wanted an authentic Guinea Bissau experience so now you have it. You must suffer the frustration of a dysfunctional government to know how the people feel. You must physically suffer the pain of injury to know how decades of failing to fix the roads have injured Guinea Bissau. Don’t worry, you will get on the starting blocks in Tokyo. But when you do, it will mean even more because you will have triumphed as a true Guinean…..”
