The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has made an appeal to Senator John Enoh, the Minister of Sports Development, and various stakeholders, urging them to collaborate in order to ensure that Nigerian athletes can achieve their aspirations at the upcoming Paris Olympic Games and other significant international competitions.
Eng. Habu Gumel, the President of the NOC, reiterated the importance of testing their preparedness for the 2024 Olympic Games by utilizing the African Games as a platform for both qualification and raising awareness.
A statement released by Tony Nezianya, the Public Relations Officer of the NOC, disclosed that the 13th African Games, which had experienced multiple postponements, are now scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghana, from March 8 to March 23, 2024.
“As of today and heading into the Olympic year 2024, our nation has only qualified three in Athletics, three in boxing and one each in cycling and wrestling, ” noted the NOC boss.
”This is a far cry from expectations, even though we are still hopeful of qualifying more athletes, especially with our Women’s Basketball and Women’s Football teams still engaged in the qualifying series,” he said.
Adewale Oladunjoye, President of Nigeria Triathlon Union (NTU), said: “To go for qualifiers will require massive funding of teams by the ministry.”
According to him, even though the Minister has called for collaboration with the private sector, it must be noted that this is a sector that is facing fluctuating fortunes in sourcing the scarce foreign exchange to stabilize their businesses.
Gumel, noted with regret that some of Nigeria’s talented athletes and teams are missing out because they failed to take part in mandatory qualification events leading to the Olympic Games.
“Right now, the qualification system for both individual and team sports for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is ongoing and as far as the Olympic Games are concerned, a critical take-off point is the qualification tournaments.
The NOC helmsman therefore appealed to the Minister of Sports to ensure Nigeria would take part in the African Games as well as other qualifying tournaments to improve the chances of the country’s strong presence at the Olympics.
Gumel, however, said that he was certain all parties are committed to the success of the nation and are determined to surpass the 1996 record.
