A Position to Compete and Win Medals — Atotal of 84 athletes are representing Team Nigeria at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which commenced on Friday with a spectacular opening ceremony held on the iconic River Siene. Regarded as the world's biggest sports event and the largest gathering of athletes in a variety of competitions, Paris 2024 is the sixth Olympic Games to be hosted in France since 1924. More than 10,000 athletes are registered to compete in 32 sports.
Nigeria is making its 18th appearance at the Games since the maiden appearance in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Team Nigeria will compete across 12 different sports. Notably, the contingent is largely comprised of female athletes, with a significant presence from the female national soccer team, the Super Falcons and the women's senior basketball team, D'Tigress. Team Nigeria will also participate in events such as Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Canoeing, Cycling, Taekwondo, Table tennis, Wrestling, Weightlifting, and Swimming.
Nigeria's best chance of winning medals in Paris 2024 lies in Tobi Amusan replicating her feat in the women's 100 metres hurdles where she's the reigning world record holder at 12.12 seconds. Although she struggled for the greater part of the season after coming out of the trauma of two missed dope tests before she was cleared. Ese Brume on the other hands has not been able to reach the height that placed her among podium favourites in long jump. Nigeria's strongest area of strength remains the women's wrestlers. With an experienced Olympic gold medalist, Daniel Igali in charge as president, he knows one or two tricks about the sport. He did it for his adopted country Canada and has been leading his wards in the right direction in the game.
However, we do not want a replay of the scandals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games held a year later in 2021, due to Covid-19 pandemic. That was one competition Nigeria would rather forget given the unpleasant memories. While our country's contingent performed slightly better than the previous two outings in London and Rio de Janeiro with the consolatory silver and bronze medals won by Blessing Oborududu (wrestling) and Brume (long jump), Team Nigeria was in the news at the Tokyo Olympics for the wrong reasons.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had beamed its searchlight on Nigeria due to several things that officials took for granted. It therefore came as no surprise when Nigeria got listed in Category 'A' of countries with highest risks of doping. Of the 20 athletes from seven countries suspended by Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics in Tokyo 2020, 10 of them were Nigerians. These unfortunate athletes were barred by the AIU because some lazy Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) failed to do their job. The athletes violated Rule 15 of the anti-doping regulations which mandated three out-of-competitions tests within 10 months of a major track and field competition.
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It was this carelessness that resulted in the suspension of 10 of the 23 athletes registered for the track and field events. They didn't do the mandatory blood and urine tests three weeks apart before arriving in Tokyo for the Games. It was therefore a sorry sight to see Nigerian athletes who should be competing for medals, carrying placards to protest their being excluded through no fault of theirs. To compound the problem, PUMA, the German sportswear company that our officials entered partnership with on behalf of the country, chose the period to cancel the four-year deal with Nigeria over a breach that had to do with some financial improprieties.
After Nigeria's best-ever performance at the Atlanta Games in 1996, our sports have
been floundering like rudderless ship on sea. No real attempt has been made to reverse the rot in the sector. But things seem to be changing.
With N12 billion approved and disbursed for Paris 2024 by the federal government, good training in Germany and Spain for the teams, we expect our athletes to return with medals, not scandals. The Sports Minister, John Owan Enoh has avoided usual problems afflicting the team like non-payment of camp allowances, ticket refunds, and poor kits. We hope that Team Nigeria will represent our country well. We wish them success at the Olympics.
