Late November is normally a time of the year when serious athletes are applying full throttle to winter training in preparation for the World Championship season ahead. But one standout runner is taking time away from his off-season regimen to help inject some sporting activities into the lives of the less fortunate.

Athens 1500m finalist and former European junior champion Gert-Jan Liefers of the Netherlands will be part of a sixteen-athlete contingent of Ambassadors flying this week to Tanzania to participate in an Athletes Forum for the humanitarian organisation, Right to Play.

As the group describes itself, the Toronto-based organisation strives to “use sport and play programmes to encourage healthy physical, social and emotional development of the world’s most disadvantaged people.”  Founded in 1992, the charity is currently headed by its president and CEO, four-time Olympic gold-medallist speed skater Johann Olav Koss of Norway.

Giving something back

Liefers’ own involvement as an Ambassador came after hearing of the experiences of Ellen van Langen, the Barcelona Olympics women’s 800m champion and one of the athletes’ managers at Global Sports Communications, the firm guiding Liefers’ career.

“Last year, the National Olympic Committee [of Netherlands] was looking for additional Ambassadors,” said the 26-year-old from his Apeldoorn home last week, “and after hearing Ellen speak about her own participation in several Athletes Forums, I thought it would be interesting for me also.”  

“I think it’s always good to give something back from one’s sporting experiences.  You’re always busy with yourself and your own goals when you’re involved in sport, so it’s beneficial to stop for a moment and see how the other side lives.”

Joining Liefers from the realm of Athletics will be former 800m runner Charles Nkazamyampi of Burundi, the 1993 World Indoor silver medallist, and 5000m runner Dorcus Inzikuru of Uganda, a 2002 Commonwealth Games finalist and also a former World Junior champion

Among the notables from other parts of the sporting world making the trip to Tanzania are a pair of Olympic champion speed skaters, American Dan Jansen and Catriona Le May Doan of Canada.  In addition, Dutch judo athlete Edith Bosch, a silver medallist in Athens, and Norway’s Siren Sundby, who has earned world, European and Olympic titles in sailing, will be part of the group.

The Ambassadors will visit refugee camps near the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam and promote sports as part of the daily routine, to give a sense of purpose to the lives of those escaping civil strife in their home countries. 

“Life doesn’t have a lot of meaning when you live in a camp like that because you can’t do much,” reasoned Liefers.  “This will give them a goal for the day and will help relieve the boredom they otherwise would have in the camp.”

After the week-long visit of the Ambassadors has been completed, a staff of local volunteers will continue the recreation programmes until the next Athletes Forum with elite athletes convenes.

Time to assess priorities

But the departure for home does not end the group’s involvement.  As Liefers sees it, “part of our role with Right to Play is not only to bring sports to the camps, but also to later spread the message to the industrialised world about the social conditions in these camps, to describe what it means to be a refugee there.”

From his several prior visits to Kenya for training camps, the Dutch runner learned much from the different pace of life in equatorial Africa.

“In such a society, the day-to-day activities are far less complicated than in Europe,” he observed.  “There’s more of a community feeling among the people.  Everyone seems to be far more relaxed.”

“I think it’s important for one’s self-development to have these experiences,” he continued.  “We in the Western world live in societies where materialism is the norm.  We’re so busy with accumulating more and more.  This will allow me to see the other side and help me assess my own priorities.”

Although Liefers expects rather full days to be de rigueur during his stay in Tanzania, he still hopes to maintain his current fitness level.

“I know I probably won’t have a track at my disposal there, but it won’t be a problem to find a place to run,” he assumed, adding that “it’s perhaps not the best thing for my training to go there at this time, but I think it’s worth it for me to be able to have another view of life.”  
 
Ed Gordon for the IAAF