How can Africa improve its performance at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics?

The 2024 Paris Olympics has come to an end, and Africa’s performance in this Olympics has improved slightly compared to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The African continent won a total of 39 medals, including 13 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze medals from 12 countries, with Kenya being the best performer with 11 podium finishes.

That’s two more medals than they won in Japan three years ago, but less than the 45 medals African athletes won at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

So what could be improved at the next Olympics before Los Angeles 2028?

Funding gap

One of the major disadvantages Africa faces is funding and support for athletes. Compared to the most developed countries, the numbers are very different.

For example, the team representing the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland received £245 million ($313 million) in prize money for the Paris Olympics cycle – a sum that many African countries could only dream of.

The United States, meanwhile, has world-class facilities, a university system that produces top talent for individual and team sports, and huge sponsorship deals.

“The government should release the funds,” Nigerian badminton player Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori told BBC Sport Africa.