31/03/2012 World Olympic Dreams

If there's flip-flops for goalposts then this must be Brazil.

Welcome to another edition of World Olympic Dreams,

this time from Rio de Janeiro.

Football here is a way of life,

but there's more to sport than just the beautiful game

because the Olympic games are coming here to this city in 2016.

In London, we might have witnessed the majority of the transformation

in time for the Games of 2012,

but here in Rio, change is in the air.

Coming up in the programme...

Two aspiring Olympians from here in Brazil:

a young judo fighter called Sarah Menezes

and a young boxer whose life changed forever

when his father was gunned down and killed.

HE SPEAKS IN PORTUGUESE

HE SOBS

Elsewhere, five-times world boxing champion MC Mary Kom

on life as a mother of two and the mixed emotions of her sport.

Maybe your opponent is, kind of, badly hurt.

-Do you feel bad?

-Yeah, of course.

We meet Emily Seebohm,

the Aussie swimmer who's endured a torrid last two months with illness.

Every time I got sick and got bored of being in hospital in my bed,

I was like, "I've got to go back to swimming," like, "I'm going insane!"

And finally, we find a school in Pakistan

that has produced no fewer than 57 international hockey players.

Most Brazilians are used to round rather than oval balls,

but these rugby players should be excited because the Rio games

will welcome rugby sevens as an official sport for the first time.

It joins a somewhat diverse list of sports included in the Games.

Some of you might know that tug-of-war

was once an Olympic sport, but did you know that in 1900,

one of the events was long jump for horses?

In August of this year there will be another new sport to add to the list

and that will be women's boxing,

and whatever your thoughts about the sport,

there's one woman who is hoping to crown an extraordinary career

with an Olympic gold medal - India's boxing queen, MC Mary Kom.

Magnificent Mary, as she is affectionately known back home,

has won her fifth world championship since we've been following her.

She must be a favourite for Olympic success,

but, as our reporter Emma Jane Kirby discovered,

the ring isn't the only place where she's had to fight.

Mary Kom's homeland, Manipur, is far from wealthy.

In the capital, Imphal,

violent insurgency has halted much development.

Indian rickshaws have always been a magnet for tourists,

but here in Manipur there just aren't any foreign visitors.

That's because until very recently, tourists were banned from the state

because it simply isn't stable enough.

There are around 30 different insurgent groups operating throughout Manipur

and the result is almost daily killings and violence.

Mary comes from a remote village.

Her father was a keen wrestler and Mary shared his love of sport.

When she was 15, she made a tough decision to leave her family

to study at the sports academy in the capital, Imphal.

In those days, women's boxing wasn't an officially recognised sport

so Mary Kom enrolled as a general athlete.

HE SPEAKS IN DIALECT

And she's passing the Kom fighting spirit back down the line.

I mean balance.

Left.

Right.

Left.

Right. Good.

One-two. Good.

Mary's father once warned her she would ruin her looks

and would never marry if she continued boxing.

Mary has proved him wrong.

Her husband, Onler, is not only her manager - he's her mentor.

And he looks after their four-year-old twins,

Nai Nai and Raengpe.

As the London Olympics looms ever closer,

Mary is spending more and more time training away from her family.

I miss my kids and they miss me.

It's difficult to juggle the boxing and the family.

Yeah, it's very difficult, but I have to do.

Very difficult,

but I have to do for my country

and I have to fulfil my dreams

coming to 2012 London Olympics.

Once inside the ring, Mary's focus has to be on the fight

and only on the fight.

It's absolutely incredible watching the transformation of Mary Kom in the ring.

The minute she steps in the ring,

she stops being this gentle mother-like figure

that we've become familiar with.

She becomes a tiger.

Boxing, it's a discipline.

When we are not angry,

I think it's not a real boxer.

So when we get in the ring,

if you're not angry then I think you can't win a bout.

Mary does a lot of her training with male boxers.

She admits that sometimes it's difficult for her to punch a pretty -

or, as she says, cute - woman opponent.

If you hurt somebody after a fight you win,

maybe your opponent is quite badly hurt.

-Do you feel bad?

-Yeah, of course.

Of course when I've seen my opponent is getting injury, it's hard.

So...sometimes it's bleeding also.

So you feel very bad. Very upset.

Mary Kom may fight with the boys,

but she doesn't want to be mistaken for one.

Keeping her femininity is extremely important to her.

As a woman, I like shopping

and I like ladies' dresses, skirts,

frocks, and Manipur dress, you know?

Indian dress. I just want to identify myself as a woman.

This is Imphal's famous women's market.

Only women are allowed to sell things here.

Throughout Manipur's history,

women have always played a dominant role in society.

In 1891, when the British seized this former kingdom,

it was women who led the revolt, but even today many of the protests

against human rights abuses by the army, by the police

and by insurgents are still led by women.

So perhaps it's not surprising that this small Indian state

should have produced a female champion like Mary Kom.

Whenever you come down to the beachfront in Rio,

there's always sport taking place.

This is one of the best to watch -

It's futevol, a mixture between football and volleyball.

If they ever turned it into an Olympic sport,

Brazil would run away with it.

Until 2008, though,

no individual Brazilian woman had ever won an Olympic title.

Sarah Menezes, from the sport of judo, is, though,

a real contender to win in London 2012.

It could have been so different, though.

She's from a remote state in the Northeast of Brazil,

where judo isn't necessarily the most obvious career choice.

We met up with Sarah in her home town of Teresina.

A new beginning.

Sarah Menezes and her coach have plans

to open a new judo gym in this deserted shop.

Her success has enabled her to reinvest in the community

that has supported her.

Sarah Menezes is a true home-town hero.

Aged 22, the judo fighter has already won two world championship medals

and London 2012 will be her second Olympic games.

Success, wherever it is in the world,

is greeted with great fanfare in this remote state,

where heroes are few and far between.

HE SPEAKS IN PORTUGUESE

Her path hasn't always been smooth.

This part of Brazil isn't used to girls taking up a sport like judo.

Sarah had to hide training sessions from her mother,

sneaking her judo suit into a bag

and pretending she was out with friends.

SHE SPEAKS IN PORTUGUESE

Brazil is much better known for football than judo,

but this club says that because of Sarah's success,

they have seen a huge uptake in the sport here,

especially for girls.

The years of hard work have paid off,

but she feels that she has one major opponent to overcome.

If Sarah Menezes doesn't win a gold medal in London in 2012,

she'll be absolutely at the peak of her powers

here in Rio de Janeiro for the Games of 2016.

Now, not every athlete can boast a world title, an Olympic title

and three world records by the time they turn 18.

But Aussie swimmer Emily Seebohm is no ordinary athlete.

At every edition of the Summer Olympics,

success in the pool is a bit of a given for the Aussie team.

But Emily was just 16

when she helped them win a gold medal in Beijing in 2008

in the 4x100 metre medley relay.

Since then, Emily Seebohm has been through more than her fair share

of ups and downs, with a run of serious illnesses

that have blighted her preparations for London.

Karthi Gnanasegaram went to Brisbane to meet her.

Becoming an Olympian will always be an epic exercise in problem-solving.

The problem of your opponents.

The problem of the limits of your sport.

The problem of your mind.

But, for Australian swimmer Emily Seebohm,

the problem is what her own body has done to her

over the past year or so.

Her vital pre-Olympic year came off the rails dramatically

when she caught swine flu.

As bad as that was, it was only the beginning.

What followed was a long recovery,

blighted by a dizzying list of illnesses.

Every time I seemed to be doing better times, I'd get sick again,

so it was tonsillitis - I had about five bouts of that.

I had a bout of bronchitis, I had a bout of pancreatitis,

you know, I had everything that you could possibly get

in, like, a six-month period of when I needed to be at my best.

Did you think about having to stop swimming completely at any point?

I think after maybe the fifth or sixth time I was sick,

I was like, "No, that's it,

"I'm going to call it quits for this year."

But I think every time I got sick

and got bored of being in hospital, in my bed,

I was like, "I've got to go back to swimming! I'm going insane!"

After months in and out of hospital,

Emily's doctors still aren't totally sure what's caused her ill health.

It may be some sort of extreme allergy

but, following her latest visit,

the news, at least, is sounding more positive.

So you've just been inside for an appointment. What have you found out?

Um, nothing new, which is good! No news is good news.

But, yeah, I've got some stuff

for when I get nosebleeds at altitude and my nose gets too dry.

And he said that could also

be why I really easily get colds and flu, so...

At the moment, you're fairly healthy and everything's going OK?

-Yeah, really healthy at the moment, so it's good.

-Good.

Her recovery continues here, in the physio room.

Emily is having weekly sessions of suction cupping

to stimulate her muscles and increase her feeling of strength in the water.

I love getting a massage and then the feeling in the water,

like, you just feel more, I don't know, reach and a lot longer.

It's a form of treatment that you really do feel...

er, immediately.

Her perception in the water is one of...

..increased length in the water, as she's described.

Increased breathing capacity.

Again, it's very hard to prove, but they're factors for the swimmers

over the years that you find are really important.

In the Brisbane suburbs, at the Seebohm family home,

inspiration to drive Emily's recovery is never too far away.

It's not every house that can boast a welcome like this -

the Australian flag, complete with the signature

of every Australian gold medallist from the 2008 Olympics.

And that's a theme that runs throughout this household.

You've got Emily's gold medal,

as well as her eight Commonwealth Games medals

and certificates for her world records.

They're all in the Emily Shrine, which is in the main room,

not that that is a phrase that she likes to use herself.

These medals and trophies show how far this 19 year old

has already come in her sport.

And with her health finally improving,

her plan to add individual Olympic titles

to her relay gold from Beijing is back on track.

I want to go back there

and be able to do something that I haven't done yet,

which is get my own individual medal,

you know, hopefully it's gold

and hopefully I'm singing my national anthem again.

You've only got to come to the Copacabana on the weekend

to see that Brazilians love the outdoor life

and sport in all its different guises.

It's not uncommon to find a country that defines itself through sport.

In Pakistan, there's only room on the back pages for two -

cricket and hockey.

They won the Asian games to secure their place for London 2012.

As the players returned home, our cameras were at Lahore Airport

to capture the scenes of triumphant supporters greeting the squad.

And one town in the Punjab

has produced more hockey players than most.

Our reporter, Aleem Maqbool, travelled to the school

that has produced no fewer than 57 international hockey players.

CHILDREN CHATTER

This is a story of how a modest school in central Pakistan

became one of the greatest production lines in world hockey.

MC High in the small town of Gojra has an incredible record

for churning out Olympians.

Well, it is hockey more than anything else

that has given the pupils here a chance to go out and see the world.

And it is this remarkable school that has given poor children

the ability to compete internationally

with those from much more privileged backgrounds.

The school's full of pupils

whose minds are only on one day wearing a Pakistan shirt.

Pupils like 14 year old Soman.

He's already one of those

who's been identified as a hockey star of the future.

HE SPEAKS IN PUNJABI

-TRANSLATION:

-I'm so lucky to go to this school,

one which has produced so many gold medallists and Olympians.

They used the same classrooms I do, and it inspires me.

The honours board shows that, in the past 40 years,

this one school alone has produced 57 international hockey players.

But how?

It's really all down to one former pupil from the '60s,

who just happened to become an hockey international.

HE SPEAKS IN PUNJABI

Aslam Rodha decided to come back to the school as a coach

and start a sporting revolution.

HE SPEAKS IN PUNJABI

-TRANSLATION:

-In this area, there was no industry,

it was a small town, famous for nothing.

Even the market was empty.

I wanted to give this place

and the children at the school the chance to do something great.

I dreamed of a time when seven or eight members

of the national hockey squad would come from here.

And it happened.

But hockey's not a cheap sport,

and in Pakistan, around 60 percent live on less than two dollars a day.

So it's in defiance of the odds that in Gojra,

you can walk through some areas

where international sports stars are all around.

Well, this is Pakistan's real-life Olympic village.

In just a few streets - a matter of 100 homes or so -

there live nearly 20 people

who've represented their country on the hockey field.

One of them is Kashif, another former MC High School pupil

who's in the team preparing for London.

KASHIF SPEAKS IN PUNJABI

-TRANSLATION:

-At school when I was 11,

they asked us to raise our hands if we wanted to play hockey.

I did, but my parents were against it.

Dad wanted me to be a labourer like him, to bring in money.

But now they're both so proud.

COMMENTARY IN PUNJABI

So many players from here have been part of Pakistan's past glories.

Four members of the current squad went to MC High.

Among those hoping to continue

the school's amazing tradition is Soman.

SOMAN SPEAKS IN PUNJABI

-TRANSLATION:

-My dream's to be an international player,

to bring honour to the country, to win matches and Olympic gold medals.

And you have to say it could be

that he's in one of the best places in the world to achieve it.

Last year, Brazil overtook the UK

to become the world's sixth-largest economy,

but despite that boom, there is still huge inequality here.

Some 20 percent of Rio's inhabitants live in favelas.

These are essentially marginalised neighbourhoods -

shantytowns, like this one, dotted all over the city.

There are approximately 1,000 favelas in Rio,

and life here can be tough.

It's a cliche, but sport offers the opportunity

to fight your way out of your situation.

And I've come here, to this favela,

to meet a man who is doing exactly that.

Meet Roberto Custodio.

At 23, he's won the Brazilian championship at welterweight.

He's in with a shout at a place in the London Olympics.

He lives in a favela where the drug lords still operate.

But he's one of the lucky ones.

HE SPEAKS IN PORTUGUESE

The Fight For Peace Gym was set up

by British boxer Luke Dowdney in 2000.

His aim is straightforward.

We're just here to do what we do,

which is to run a successful boxing club

and to give kids the chance to access education and training courses,

give them a hand. They have to do the hard work, we don't do that.

All we do is provide a structure for them.

And that's the whole, I think...

The premise of Fight For Peace underneath,

is that, you know, if you don't train, you get beat.

It's the same in any sport,

but it's particularly true in boxing,

cos it hurts a lot, right?

So if you don't train for a sport,

you're going to get punched a lot, you're going to get knocked out.

And life's like that, you know?

Roberto has lived his life on the edge

between the success he's seeing today and tragedy.

When he was 13, his father fell out with the local drug dealers

who control so much of life here.

He fled the favela, but came back to visit,

and was executed.

HE CRIES

The people here at Fight For Peace believe firmly

that if you show young people like Roberto

an alternative to a life of crime, and provide them with an education,

it will reap benefits.

Already, people here are feeling the effects

of other favelas being cleared of the drug lords.

Guns have been disappearing from the streets over the last few months.

Something is changing.

There are so many strengths and there's so much in the community,

in the favela, which we should be proud of,

and rather than put walls up in front

or say that you have to kind of...

"Keep that over there, it's not part of our city."

Because of the community policing programme,

favelas are more accessible to people so they're learning

that they are not these terrible enclaves of violent people,

there's actually only a couple of percent of the community

that's been involved in that stuff.

99 per cent of people that live here

are hard-working individuals just trying to get by.

That's it from this edition of World Olympic Dreams

in Rio de Janeiro,

a city that is probably going to have to take

a step into the unknown.

Coming up next time,

I'll be catching up with the Iraqi rower I first met in Baghdad.

He has one final chance to qualify for London 2012.

Can he make it?

# I fly like paper Get high like planes

# If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name

# If you come around here I'll make 'em all day

# I'll get one done In a second if you wait

# I fly like paper Get high like planes

# If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name

# If you come around here I'll make 'em all day

# I'll get one done In a second if you wait. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd