Chad at The 2008 Summer Olympics - Background

Background

Chad is a landlocked country in Africa whose northern region lies within the eastern reaches of the Sahara Desert and whose southern region lies within the eastern portion of the Sahel. It borders Libya to the south, Niger to the east, Sudan to the west, and the Central African Republic to the north. Chad was originally part of French West Africa until 1960, when it declared independence. Some four years later, the former French colony made its début at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. For the next three decades, Chad became embroiled in civil war and experienced invasions by Libya and upheavals by Sudanese-backed rebels; the civil war ended in 1990, although rebel threats had persisted between then and 2008. During Chad's greatest era of instability, athletes from the country did not attend the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, Canada or the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR, although delegations were sent to all other games between 1964 and 2008.

The largest Chadian delegation to reach the Olympics appeared in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea and at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain; each time, Chad's National Olympic Committee sent six athletes. During the 1992 games, the NOC sent the nation's first female Olympian. Since then (and up to the Beijing games), at least one woman has been a part of the Chadian delegation. The smallest contingency of Chadian Olympians occurred during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, when only Brahim Abdoulaye competed on the country's behalf. The delegation that arrived in Beijing consisted of two athletes—one man (30 year old Moumi Sébergué) and one woman (15 year old Hinikissa Albertine Ndikert), both participants in track events. Ndikert was Chad's flagbearer at the ceremonies, Up to and including the Beijing games, there has yet to have been a medalist from Chad.