Dance, water cannon salute as Namibia teen Tokyo Olympics medal winner arrives home

Namibian teen athlete and their first woman Olympian medalist Christine Mboma was given a water cannon salute, songs, dance and a carnival street parade when she touched down on Tuesday from the Tokyo Olympics.

READ | NZ DISH OUT BRUTAL WAKE-UP CALL TO SA AT TOKYO OLYMPICS

Water cannons showered the commercial jet that flew back home the 18-year-old at Hosea Kutako International airport in Windhoek, to celebrate the country’s second ever Olympic medal since independence three decades ago.

She disembarked the plane to the sound of the Namibian and African Union anthem played by the national police brass band.

READ | TOKYO OLYMPICS: 8 BIG NAME FLOPS

Outside the airport, traditional dancers, bikers and sports fans joined in the frenzied celebrations before she and fellow athletes were taken to the city in a convoy of hundreds of cars and bikes in a victory parade along the main Independence Avenue that culminated in Katurura, the capital city’s largest township.

Along the route, locals, some waving the country’s flag, blew whistles and screamed with joy at their hero who rode in an open fire-fighters’ truck – waving at her compatriots that lined the streets.

READ | TOKYO OLYMPICS: 5 BREAKOUT STARS

Mboma clinched a silver, producing one of the most eye-catching performances of the Tokyo Games last week, surging through a star-studded women’s 200m field to claim silver in 21.81 seconds, a new under-20 world record.

She is Namibia’s first woman Olympic medalist and the country’s second after sprinter Frankie Fredericks, a four-time Olympic silver-medalist in 1992 and 1996.

FOR THE BEST COVERAGE OF THE TOKYO OLYMPICS PLEASE VISIT THE SOUTH AFRICAN WEBSITE

“I feel proud of being Namibian, the land of the brave,” she later told a news conference.

But her victory reopened debate about track and field’s complex rules regarding women born with elevated testosterone.

Fellow Namibian, 18-year-old Beatrice Masilingi, who finished sixth, also impressed by reaching the 200m final in her first major competition.

WATCH | TEAM SA SAY EMOTIONAL FAREWELL TO BIANCA BUITENDAG

Both Mboma and Masilingi are determined as having differences in sexual development (DSD) – or “intersex” athletes – with naturally high testosterone levels.

Under World Athletics rules, the two sprinters’ rare physiology is deemed to give them an unfair competitive advantage in track events ranging between 400m and one mile.

READ | NON-PAYMENT SAGA TO SA MEDAL WINNERS RUMBLES ON

Neighbouring South Africa’s two-time Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya, who is also classified as a DSD athlete, elected not to defend her middle-distance crown in Tokyo following a requirement to lower her testosterone level. 

READ | MEET THE COOLEST DUDE IN TOKYO: SA’S 46-YEAR-OLD SKATEBOARDER DALLAS OBERHOLZER