Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, has said the country’s apex body has swung into a review process of Nigeria’s poor performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics Games as the country looks forward to the Paralympics, which begins August 28 in Paris as well.
At the 33rd Olympic Games held between July 26 and August 11 in France, Nigeria failed to win a medal despite a strong representation of 88 athletes in 12 sports, matching the country’s worst outings in Helsinki 1952, Melbourne 1965, Rome 1960, Mexico 1968, Moscow 1980, Seoul 1988 and London 2012.
Enoh, who had earlier commented on Team Nigeria’s poor performance at the multi-sport event, took to X on Sunday to further admit that the outing could have been better.
“The Olympic Games, Paris 2024, has ended, and I accept that our performance should have been a lot better. It obviously fell short of our objectives, expectations, and hopes of Nigerians. I must apologise to our compatriots and reflect on what went wrong while looking forward to the Paralympic Games, Paris 2024 (August 28- September 8),” Enoh’s statement read in part.
“In all these, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federation, HE Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ensured that funds were not a limiting factor. Athletes’ competition requirements were provided, allowances were paid early, and training grants were disbursed to all athletes. I made myself readily available to deal with any issue throughout the competition. Therefore, the underwhelming performance of our team is puzzling. We owe Nigerians an explanation.
“As a responsible organisation, we have swung into a review process. We shall evaluate the competition readiness of every athlete comprehensively, including their injury and medical history within the limits of patient confidentiality. The role of coaches and administrative staff will also be examined.”
The minister who was appointed about a year ago, also said that the ministry had few months to prepare for the Olympics and other major competitions, while sports federations were more focused on qualifying than preparing for the Olympics.
“When I assumed office as the Minister of Sports Development in August 2023, I was confronted with the task of executing four international competitions namely the AFCON, the African Games, and the Olympics and Paralympic Games in a matter of a few months. I was also reminded that the Olympic Games is the world’s supreme sports competition, and countries require at least four years to prepare for it. I held extensive discussions with the management staff of the ministry and got to know that preparations for the Olympics, which was less than a year away, had not started.
“After the African Games, subsequent meetings were limited to the federations that had bright chances of qualifying for the Olympics. Medal projections were made by all the federations, although their athletes were still trying to qualify; which lasted until about June 2024. The concerned federations obviously prioritised qualification over preparations for the Games. This seems to have always been the case. This has to change.”
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