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Nigeria’s Olympic preparations
No doubt,
Olympic games are rated the world’s biggest sports festival that affords the
best sportsmen and women the opportunity to compete in all events every four
years. The games provide that ambience for the world to determine the most
outstanding athletes. The honour and acclaim that go with it are evidenced in
the pace of the preparations for this very important encounter by the world’s
highly-rated athletes.
With less than a month to the 2004 games
in Athens, the preparations of Nigeria for the encounter cannot be said to be
the best.
The nation’s contingent is billed to
feature in ten events, at the Athens games which among others are athletics,
boxing, female football, table tennis and swimming. In previous games,
particularly the Atlanta games in 1996 and that of Sydney, Australia in 2000,
the country’s participation in many events was pruned down due to the inability
to qualify at the preliminary stages of the competition. But that limitation has
been reversed in the current event.
Struggling to qualify for major
competitions including the Olympic games final has of late, become the lot of
the country’s contingent. In spite of the nation’s enormous human and material
resources, it has continued to be a mirage why and how it has been extremely
difficult to present an organised and equally competitive team at major
tournaments.
More often, this has continued to be
blamed on sundry reasons ranging from the absurd to the ridiculous and mundane.
This has tended to subtract substantively from our image as a serious country.
There is hardly any competition where the
country’s preparations had not been marred by sundry complaints chiefly among
them, being lack of funds to prosecute the campaign. It has become a common
practice and a regular excuse for athletes and sports administrators to put the
blame for non-performance on lack of funds to enable the athletes adequately
prepare for the challenges ahead.
Ironically, the funds that were denied the
teams to enable them effectively prepare the athletes would be made abundantly
available to host the contingent on their return even if there was neither a
medal nor any evidence of credible performance at the games.
There is also the absence of a deliberate
effort to get the preparations of the athletes funded through the organised
private sector. This is unlike the practice in Europe and America where product
endorsements and sponsorships form the major earnings of the athletes and aid
them effectively prepare for major tournaments.
Faced with lack of support by both the
government and sponsors, Nigerian athletes have been left with no other option
than to compete all year round to raise money. This has had a deleterious effect
on their standards and performance in such competitions. Out of competition, the
athletes are usually on their own, but unfortunately, the expectations are
usually high on them as the events approach without anyone caring to know what
is to be done to elevate the psyche and the performance of the athletes.
Perhaps, this explains the penchant to
place very high premium on financial rewards during each competition by
athletes. It may also be the reason why many of our sports stars have had to
pick quarrels with our sports administrators.
It is therefore important that conscious
and concerted efforts are made to adequately prepare for and fund international
sporting competitions if our nation is to make favourable impact on such events.
It is not too late in the day and if our leaders genuinely desire a superb
outing in Athens 2004, they must financially encourage and support our athletes.
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