Nigeria’s abysmal performance at the just concluded Tokyo Olympics in Japan coupled with the failure of the leadership of both the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) as well as the Ministry of Sports to take responsibility for the show of shame in form of performance at the global stage is indeed worrisome for any right-thinking member of the society.
Such an outing, like in the past, has become the norm and if care is not taken, might be the trademark going forward.
Team Nigeria went into the event with 55 contingents and participated in 10 sporting activities which include Athletics, Basketball, Wrestling and others but won one silver and one bronze medal at the tail end of the event.
Team Nigeria finished 74th at the end of the 2020 Tokyo Games and eighth-best among the 54 African nations at the Games.
After much waiting and loss of hope, Ese Brume won the bronze medal from the women’s long jump event, Blessing Oborududu won the silver medal from the wrestling event’s women’s freestyle 68kg.
Just as it was earlier said, the abysmal performance is gradually becoming Nigeria’s trademark at the Olympics.
Nigeria’s Performance At Previous Olympics
Nigeria first took part in an Olympic event in 1952 and have since then participated in all the events except Montreal 1976 that was boycotted.
So far, their best performance was at the Atlanta 96, USA as the team won a total of 6 medals and its worst performance was at the London 2012 with zero medal.
After shocking the world at the Atlanta 96 winning a gold medal in the football event defeating Brazil and Argentina in the semi-final and final respectively, the Nigeria dream team have gone to win silver and bronze medals at the event in Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016.
However, an upward progression was expected after the Atlanta 96 as the country boast of talents of kinds to compete for the top 10 on the medal’s table.
Instead, 25years later the country is yet to beat its best performance and what has been experienced at the following six events after Atlanta 96 have been a very poor outing.
Nigeria has won a total of 27 medals in 6 sports.
Ahead Of Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was a big blow, major sporting events were cancelled and some were delayed. This affected most athletes as the whole world was on lockdown.
Despite the lockdown and the inability to train, the Nigerian contingents were in great shape and form going into the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic event but failed to fulfil her potentials.
Nigeria boasts of best athletes across the globe and it was believed that the country will win at least 10medals at the event.
One of Nigeria’s hopes to get on the podium was in the team sport (Basketball) after its unbelievable win against the USA in an exhibition match shook the world but failed to move past the group stage.
Despite the high hopes, D’Tigers’ performance did not come as a surprise as Nigerian best shot at medals has always been in track and field events.
Prior to the event, Olympic silver medalist, Blessing Okagbare has been consistent in all her races in the Diamond League and top Meets across the world and also Favour Ofili and Ruth Usoro put up an exceptional performance with their record-breaking in the United States schools’ circuits.
Also, Tobi Amusan was tipped to break the long-standing African record still held by Gloria Alozie while Ese Brume, Enoch Adegoke and Grace Nwokocha are in top form.
Nigeria’s Abysmal Performance At Tokyo 2020 Olympic: Who’s To Blame?
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics has come and gone but the show of shame, awful performance will take a while to be forgotten.
The Nigerian Olympians made a record of five finals at the Tokyo Olympics, its best performance in the previous two outings.
The team broke some records by reaching the shot-put final for the first time in history, setting a new personal best record in athletics.
The highlight and talking point of the event was the disqualification of the athletes, Pumagate and face-off between the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) as well as the Ministry of Sports.
Recall that on July 28 the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) disqualified 10 Nigerian track and field athletes for failing to comply with the out-of-competition testing (OCT) requirement.
Another nightmare struck the nation as Blessing Okagbare failed a drug test and was therefore suspended indefinitely.
This and many more can be attributed to Team Nigeria’s horrible performance.
The whole drama began with the jersey brouhaha as the ministry of sports did not allow Nigerian athletes to wear the Puma branded apparel at Tokyo Olympics, arguing that it’s “a subject of a criminal investigation”.
During the competition, the first Nigerian to qualify for the men’s shot-put final at the Olympics, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi posted a video on Instagram washing his jersey ahead of the shot put final. He wrote, “When you qualify for Olympic Finals, but you have only one jersey”.
Also, after the disqualification of some athletes, a source claimed that some officials of the Nigeria Olympic Committee collected all the phones for Team Nigeria but refused to distribute them to some of the athletes.
According to the report, the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) officials refused to give the disqualified athletes the Samsung phones that were due to them. The Samsung S20+ 5G is a souvenir that must be presented to all athletes taking part in the Olympics.
Reacting to this, Femi Adetula, NOC spokesman, said The International Olympic Committee has finally granted the request of Team Nigeria for her 10 athletes who were declared ineligible to partake in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to receive Samsung Galaxy S21 5G given to all athletes who qualified and are resident at the Olympic Village,”
Athletes Disappointment And Officials Negligence
It is unfortunate that those in charge of Nigeria’s sporting activities in the past and present have most times displayed the act of negligence.
This attitude has in many ways affected the development of sports in the country, killing the growths of athletes and maiming their dreams of becoming one of the best in the world.
The ministry of sports’ and AFN carelessness cost 10 Nigerian athletes their chance to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after many years of preparation.
The Nigerian sport’s administrators are known for most times underpaying its athletes and not catering for most of their needs before, during and after competitions.
Team Nigeria captain to the just concluded Tokyo 2020 Olympic, Aruna Quadri blasted the sports’ administrators.
According to him, those in leadership positions do not have respect for the athletes.
“When you talk, you are rude. Cheating is always normal to them. No single respect for athletes. Priority is never put on athletes. Some of you [were] caught red-handed in previous games,
“I dare you all to remove me [from the National team] because I said the truth.
“Athletes are being short paid [underpaid], and nobody should complain?
“If the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, doesn’t come and address the athletes, these officials will spoil all the good things you have been doing.
“You all wanted me to perform well, but you removed my coach that qualified me to [who helped me to qualify for] the quarter-finals at the Rio 2016 Olympics.” He wrote.
Olympic Medalist Blessing expressed her displeasure on how lack of good management is ruining Nigeria sports.
One of the D’Tigers’ players, Chimezie Metu also revealed how several “off-the-court” matters affected the team’s productivity in Tokyo.
Nigerians will hope for better participation in Paris four years time only if lessons are learnt and all shortcomings that led to poor performances of Tokyo 2020 worked on.
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