The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has described the country’s team performance at the just concluded Tokyo 2020 Olympics as one of its best.
Nigeria’s male and female teams failed to qualify for the Tokyo games despite the Super Eagles having won Gold and silver and bronze at previous editions of the competition.
Nigeria’s male soccer team dubbed the Dream Team won the men’s soccer gold medal after defeating Argentina in the final game of the game at the Atlanta ’96 Olympics, becoming the first African team to win a gold medal at the Olympics and paving the way for other African teams.
However, Nigeria was conspicuously absent in the soccer category at the Tokyo Games as both the men’s and women’s football teams did not qualify; the country also saw 11 of its athletes disqualified at the games over officials’ negligence.
The country managed to win two medals – bronze and silver – placing it 74th in the overall medal table amid a shortage of jerseys, and controversy over SAMSUNG phones at Tokyo 2020.
The football federation in a statement congratulated the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare for a “commendable” outing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and tackled former Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung describing his handling of the country’s performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics as woeful.
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The statement read, “The Nigeria Football Federation has felicitated with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the person of the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Sunday Dare on Nigeria’s outing at the 32nd Olympics which ended in Tokyo, Japan few days ago.
“Nigeria earned one silver and one bronze medals from the Games, with a slew of promising performances as a number of athletes reached the final of their events. For the first time since 1996, a Nigerian athlete was in the final of the glamour event of the Games – the men’s 100m sprint.
Young hurdler Oluwatobiloba Amusan narrowly missed netting a medal as she finished fourth in the women’s high hurdles final.
“The Nigerian contingent may not have returned with the harvest of medals that many hoped for, but there are bright lights all around and some brilliant individual performances that give hope for the next Games in Paris.
“At the end of the day, the silver and bronze medals earned in Tokyo make the just-ended Olympics Nigeria’s best outing in 13 years. That is commendable.
“The Sports Minister, in his personal capacity, and the Ministry of Sports as a body worked their socks off. The Honourable Minister was exemplary; he explained, encouraged and empathized with the athletes as necessary and led the cheer at most of the venues where Nigerian athletes competed.
“He is such a wonderful breath of fresh air from the immediate Minister of Sports who rather constituted himself into a bulwark and divisive force against Nigerian athletes at the last Olympics in Brazil.
“We do not wish to recall his inglorious remarks against the football team when the team was camping in the USA. That football team eventually ended up winning Team Nigeria’s only medal – a bronze – at the Games.”
