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Beijing Olympics: A
post-mortem
By Sun News Publishing
Monday, September 1, 2008
Nigeria’s performance at the recently concluded Beijing
Olympics calls for some introspection on the factors that
might have contributed to our not so impressive performance
at the global sports fiesta. Nigeria emerged 61st on the 88-nation
medals table, with one silver and three bronze medals.
The performance put us far behind fellow African countries
like Kenya, which took the 15th position; Ethiopia, which
emerged 18th and Cameroon, 53rd. China, which hosted the competition,
came first with a haul of 51 gold, 21 silver and 28 bronze
medals.
Given Nigeria’s immense human potentials, the financial
and other resources committed to the games and the charge
of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to our contingent to win
at least eight gold medals at the event, our failure to win
a single gold medal is disappointing.
When this performance is juxtaposed with our record of two
gold, one silver and three bronze medals at the 1996 Olympics
in Atlanta, USA, it is glaring that the nation’s performance
at the Olympics has declined, rather than improved, over a
12-year period.
This retrogression calls for some serious soul-searching on
the part of our sports administrators. They should devote
time to determine all the remote and immediate causes of the
uninspiring outing with a view to begin, seriously, the preparations
for the next edition of the Olympics.
Nevertheless, the Olympics is not only about winning medals.
It is a celebration of cooperation and friendship of all nations
through sports. We therefore, in the spirit of sportsmanship
and universal brotherhood, congratulate Team Nigeria and the
rest of the nation on our participation in the competition.
We salute the efforts of all the athletes who took part in
the games in the quest for fame and glory for themselves and
the country.
We commend our football team, Dream Team IV, for the impressive
performance, which won the nation a silver medal following
a narrow 0 – 1 loss to Argentina in the finals of the
male football competition. Damilola Osayomi, Africa’s
fastest woman, and her team deserve accolades for winning
the 4 x 100 Relay. So also, Blessing Okagbare and Chika Chukwumerije,
who won bronze medals in Long Jump (women) and Taekwondo,
respectively.
These outstanding athletes and their coaches should be appropriately
rewarded to encourage better performance at other coming international
competitions.
One factor that must not be ignored in the post-mortem of
the Beijing Olympics is the poor preparation of our athletes
for the games. The problem of lackadaisical approach to preparations
for international competitions has become legendary in the
country and the Beijing Olympics was not an exception. Many
of the teams were not adequately prepared. The boxing team,
in particular, was reported to have been only briskly rushed
off to Korea for the much needed training tours shortly before
the games took off.
Our sports administrators must appreciate the effect of adequate
preparation on the psyche and ultimate performance of athletes.
They should begin preparations for sporting events early and
not wait till the last minute. Serious attention should be
paid to hunting for talented athletes through sponsorships
of local and national competitions. The athletes should be
properly groomed to world standard.
Nigeria has many rivers and high altitude ranges like the
Obudu Cattle Ranch, which should confer advantage on our athletes
in sports like swimming and the long distance races, only
if we could discover and nurture athletes in these areas,
as countries like Kenya and Ethiopia have done.
The idea of sports administration as an armchair job should
be jettisoned. Sports administrators need to get to the field
for talent hunting. The administrators should be encouraged
and supported with adequate funding and other logistics that
can make them more organised in their work.
Organisers of the games should guard against poor officiating.
Also, the accusations of bias and racism made by Senator Uche
Chukwumerije should be seriously looked into.
The remarkable performance of our soccer team at the fiesta
is undoubtedly a product of their superior preparation for
the contest. The lesson of this should not be lost on our
sports administrators as they prepare for the next Olympics
scheduled for London, in 2012.
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