Zimbabwe’s double victory at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in July came as a major morale booster not only for the country but the southern African region ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games taking place in Athens, Greece from 13-29 August.

Zimbabwean siblings and sixth seeds Cara and Wayne Black won the 2004 Mixed Doubles tennis final, beating USA’s seventh seeded Lindsay Davenport and Bob Bryan.

Earlier on the same day, Cara with Australian Rennae Stubbs, had won the Ladies Doubles final when they defeated Liezel Huber of South Africa and Ai Sugiyama of Japan, in their first Grand Slam title together.

The Wimbledon tournament is one of the biggest tennis events in the world and Zimbabwe’s victory is a victory for the region where the game is still largely underdeveloped and competitions are predominantly at an amateur level. Southern Africa’s participation in international tennis is still limited, often represented by South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is the only SADC country that will be participating in tennis events at the 2004 Olympic Games.

More than 200 countries, including all SADC member states, will participate in the world’s biggest multiple event sporting feast, competing in 37 sporting disciplines. SADC’s world-class athletes such as Mozambique’s “Maputo Express”, Maria Mutola, will be leading contenders among the 10,500 expected competitors, to clinch the prestigious Olympic gold medals.

The Wimbledon exploits came hardly two months after the region received the most exciting sporting news when on 15 May South Africa won the right to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The football World Cup is the largest single-event sporting activity in the world, surpassed only by the multiple events of the Olympic Games.

Success in these events is critical in boosting confidence and ensuring that sport is developed at the grassroots in all SADC countries. The SADC Protocol on Culture, Information and Sport is an indication of the region’s commitment to development of sport and its implementation is critical.

The Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA), the official arm responsible for implementing all SADC sporting activities in accordance with the protocol, has underlined the region’s commitment, arranging the inaugural Zone Six SADC Games in Mozambique where 11 SADC countries participated in an array of sporting disciplines.

Such events deserve maximum support from governments and the corporate world, as they are crucial in furthering the region’s objective of “community building” as well as to prepare athletes for international competitions.