(ThyBlackMan.com) It’s hot pretty much everywhere on Earth this summer but in sports slang someone who is “hot” is performing in their sport at a high level regardless of the competition. Biniam Girmay qualifies as “hot” in sports slang. Earlier this month, Girmay became the first African cyclist to win a stage in the Tour de France by winning Stage 3 of the most acclaimed and recognized professional cycling competition in the world. Since the Lance Armstrong era decades ago, the news of Girmay’s win doesn’t resonate much in the U.S. sports headlines due to cycling not being among the professional individual sports that garner attention like golf or tennis. However, it is a major story for international reasons and African/Black people in the U.S. should be pulling for Biniam Girmay’s success in the 2024 Tour de France. Here are the three reasons why Girmay should get some “love” from African/Black sports fans in the U.S. and throughout the African diaspora (in no particular order):
Reason 1: Cycling is a challenging sport for Africans to break into professionally.
Over the past 25 years, African/Black people have had three history making athletes to root for in historically exclusionary individual sports. Those athletes are Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Tiger Woods as they made history in professional tennis and golf respectively during their Hall of Fame careers. Their successes in the historically white, classist, and very unwelcoming to African/Black people in the areas of the golf course and the tennis courts resonated very much with the African/Black community in the U.S. when their respective careers began.
Of course, the stories of the Williams sisters’ development into professional tennis stars by their father Richard Williams as an “outsider”. Woods is now viewed differently by many African/Black people in the U.S. due to his silence on race issues but as it relates to cycling and the Tour de France, it is not easy for Africans raised on the continent to become a professional like Girmay. He grew up in Eritrea and the sport of cycling is big there but the effects of colonialism make it challenging for Eritreans to become professional cyclists historically.
Reason 2: France has had a parasitic relationship to Africa for centuries
Africa has been exploited for its vast and incredible resources for centuries by a number of imperial powers including the U.S., France, Britain, and others. France has long sought to undermine African sovereignty, from the national liberation struggles of the twentieth century to today. But Africa would not tolerate French dominion then, nor will it now and African people throughout the continent have demanded France to leave Africa through campaigns and other methods. Biniam Girmay, an African born on the continent, winning multiple Tour de France stages in France has to annoy a lot of French government officials and the French ruling class.
Reason 3: Girmay dedicated his stage 3 Tour de France win to all Africans
In a post-race interview after stage 3, Biniam Girmay was emotional and said, “I want to thank my family and my wife, all the Eritrean and African fans, we must be proud because now we are really part of the big races. We have had a lot of big victories and now, this is our time and our moment. I am super happy! This means so much. This win is for all Africans I would say.”
Staff Writer; Mark Hines