Olympic Country - Madagascar 

 

My chosen Olympic country is Madagascar. It is officially known as the Republic of Madagascar and is an island Country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres off of the coast of East Africa. It is the fourth biggest island in the world, bigger than Spain, Thailand, Sweden and Germany. The UK is rather puny in comparison. 

 

The official languages of Madagascar are Malagasy and French.

 

Madagascar is one of the worlds main suppliers of vanilla, with coffee, lychees and shrimp also being important. The Country currently provides half of the worlds supply of sapphires. 

 

The national sport of Madagascar is rugby and football also popular. 

 

Madagascar has been in most of the Summer Olympic Games missing only the 1976 and the 1988 games. Madagascar is yet to win their first ever Olympic medal. The closest that a Malagasy Olympian has come to winning an Olympic medal was the sprinter Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa, who reached the final of the men's 100 metres in the 1968 Summer Olympics, finished eighth. 

However, Madagascar does have one remarkable record; they are one of the very few island nations that have competed in the Winter Olympics. They made their debut in 2006 when they sent a sole representative, alpine skier Mathieu Razanakolona who represented them in the men's giant slalom and men's slalom. 

I have designed an Olympic tracksuit for the team based on the ring-tailed lemur.

 

Blog by Hannah from Tarleton Community Primary School