Five Facts and One Educated Guess About Congo's Olympic History

Giant Olympic Rings unveiled at Heathrow ready to welcome visitors to London 2012 (Photo credit: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Some friends of ours have a dish and invited us over to watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Since we don't have television, it was a real treat to get to see something live, and in English. I thought you might be interested in the Olympic history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. While there isn't a whole lot of information out there, and some of the information I did find conflicts, here is some interesting trivia about DRC in the Olympics.

* The Telegraph reviewed all 205 national anthems for the London games and the DRC made their list of the top ten worst anthems. You can go to the link above and hear a clip and judge for yourself, as well as compare it to the other nine.

* The Democratic Republic of Congo has never won an Olympic medal. Maybe this year!

* The DRC first participated in the Olympics in 1968, under the name Congo Kinshasa.

* The DRC's second Olympic appearance was not until 1984, under the name Zaire.

* Five athletes were sent to the 1968 games. All five were cyclists.

* How many athletes from the Congo are competing in 2012? Good question! According to Congo WorldWide Services, seven athletes were chosen to complete in six categories, including one participant in the Paralympics. The official Olympics website, along with several other sources, claims that four athletes are competing: one in judo, one in boxing, and two in athletics. The paralympics section of the Olympics website has no athletes listed as yet for DRC. Since the Paralympics don't start until the end of August, it is possible that all of the athlete names have yet to be posted.

English: Olympic rings with smileys inside (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Missionaries are known for going, not for staying. As a result, while the teams paraded into the arena you could hear people in our group saying things like "that's where so-and-so is from," "I know someone who lives there," "we used to live there," and "I've been there." We found ourselves cheering firstly for our own team, but secondly for the DRC team and the teams of all our friends who couldn't be with us.

Here's a recipe for you. This is one of my favorite quick and easy snacks to make. I've had this recipe for so long that I can't recall where it came from. Originally it called for pecans but pecans cost an arm and a leg here, so I decided to try it with peanuts and it worked just fine. You can make up a batch and munch it while you watch the games!

Sweet and Spicy Nuts

1 egg white

1 TBS water

3 cups nuts (any variety)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar - for my friends in Congo, if you use the local sugar instead of white sugar, just increase the salt a little to balance out the added sweetness.

Heat oven to 300F. Beat egg white and water slightly. Stir in nuts. Mix remaining ingredients and stir into nuts. Spread on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Other sources:

Top End Sports

Guardian