Beijing Olympics: For Medals Or Jamboree?

Nigeria will join the rest of the world to contest for vital medals at the Beijing Olympic Games which kicks off this weekend. The nation’s contingent is already in China to rub shoulders with the best in the various sports for the gold medals of which President Musa Umaru Yar’Adua said he is expecting no fewer than seven.

WHILE many incurable optimists believe the target is achievable, some sports analysts and commentators have described the presidential order as a tall one.

ONE of them is former Sports Minister, Dr. Sumaila Sambawa who has called for Nigeria’s total withdrawal from the global sports fiesta, stressing that the nation’s contingent was in China for a jamboree, if our preparations were anything to go by.

FEW days ago, former president of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Chief Fan Ndubuoke joined his voice to those of other Nigerians who said we should not expect a miracle from our sportsmen/women who are ill-prepared for the games.

NDUBUOKE, a former board member of the Nigeria football Federation (NFF) and an accomplished sports journalist with rich experience in international sports coverage, examined the various indices that determined athletes’ medal chances in championships like the Olympics.

“WHAT is the basis for the optimism of those who expect medals from the Nigerian athletes at the Beijing Olympics? What is the level of preparation of our athletes for the Games? What is the best returning time of our medal hopefuls in the sprint events compared to that of the Asafa Powells, Usian Bolts, Jaysuma Ndures and Richard Thompson’s of the world”.

THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER believes that the fund released for both training, camping and the real competitions are grossly inadequate for Nigerians to expect anything from the athletes.

IT is needless to say that sports have suffered total neglect during the civilian administration. The continued dwindling performances of our athletes at global contests, are a manifestation of the lip services paid to sports in the last decade.

UNDER the military, sports thrived because of the money pumped into it without the present bureaucratic method being applied at the national level. Sports were better funded under the military administration. The Golden Eaglets that won the maiden edition of the FIFA U-17 world championship in 1985 in China and the golden Eaglets that won the same championship in 1993, in Japan; the Super Eagle that won the Nations Cup in 1994 and qualified for the World Cup same year for the first time in the history of Nigerian football, all emerged during the military regimes in the country.

AT the Atlanta ’96 where Nigeria won her first ever individual gold medal at an Olympic Games and in the Men’s football events, were all achievements recorded under the military regimes in the country. Then money was pumped into sports and our athletes did not disappoint.

IT is pertinent to note that while some countries who know that contests like the Olympic games is politics and thus voted huge sums for their athletes to compete, Nigeria is releasing a paltry N1.6b for training, camping and the actual competition.

THIS is not a healthy development for our sports. Officials who have no business in China, will board planes for a jamboree whereas the estacodes they would claim would have been enough to motivate our athletes.

ALL that our athletes need now is prayers. We did not prepare well for the Beijing Olympics and only God can remove the looming shame from the contingent.

HOWEVER, nobody should expect miracles from Beijing.

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