•Chioma Ajunwa Photo: Sun News Publishing

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1996 Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunwa-Okpara, has said that though she have had a fulfilled life in athletics, she would ever regret retiring from the sport prematurely.
Ajunwa, who is also a police superintendent with Zone 2 Command in Lagos, further dropped a bombshell, saying that she would ever regret her decision not to join the like of Gloria Alozie and Francis Obikwelu to change her nationality.
Speaking to Daily Sunsport in Lagos recently, Ajunwa said she would have still been in active sports if she had changed her nationality. She stressed that Nigeria does not know how to take care of her stars.

"I don’t know why I refused to change my nationality when I was still in the height of my formative days. I believe that if I had done that, I wouldn’t have retired from sports when I did," the former athlete began.

"I left active sports unceremoniously as a result of injury. I was strutted with a kneel injury after the Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games, where I won gold medal in long jump. In fact, it was immediately after that moment that I began to have a real battle to regain my fitness.

She continued: "I was at Sydney Olympics in Australia, but not as an athlete. I went there as an ambassador. I was there to cheer my follow athletes up and to encourage them. After that Olympics, I kept having injuries until I bowed out of the sport when I could not manage it again.
"But I am aware that if Nigeria were to be a country that cares for her athletes, I would not have retired when I did, because I believe that the like of Gloria Alozie and Francis Obikwelu are still running, but look at me now," she regrettably added.

"Nigeria never bordered to know about my welfare. Even the time when I won the Olympic gold, the first of its kind in the country, it was all my effort.
"I went to the US to train on my own account without the support of any government or sponsor. I spent two months in USA training, but nobody cared to know how I managed to make it.
"Sincerely speaking, it was not easy for me to keep spending money to nurse my injury. I would have continued to drive further if Nigeria had backed me up, but nothing like that came my way. So tell me, if you were in my shoes, after that kind of experience, what would you have done? That’s why I still regret that I would have changed my nationality.

"As it is now, I would even advise any athlete that has the opportunity to change his or her nationality to do so, because Nigeria is not worth dying for.
"There are so many other athletes and players that retired from active sports in the country due to injury, with no one lending them any helping hand. Nigeria would so frustrate you until you back out.

Those in authority take pleasure in doing it probably because they felt that the country has a pool of talented athlete. But one thing is certain, there can never be two Chioma Ajunwa’s, you may get a replica, but you can never get the exact person.

"It’s high time Nigeria started doing things right, if they don’t know how to do it, they should invite some expatriates to help them to put things in their proper perspectives, otherwise, the country will continue to lose her enterprising talents to other countries," she advised.