Olympics Reflections: Lessons learned, improvements needed in all ramifications

The Olympic Games, Paris 2024, has ended, and I accept that our performance should have been a lot better. It obviously fell short of our objectives, expectations, and hopes of Nigerians. I must apologise to our compatriots and reflect on what went wrong while looking forward to the Paralympic Games, Paris 2024(August 28- September 8th).

When I assumed office as the Minister of Sports Development in August 2023, I was confronted with the task of executing four international competitions namely the AFCON, the African Games, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in a matter of a few months. I was also reminded that the Olympic Games is the world’s supreme sports competition, and countries require at least four years to prepare for it. I held extensive discussions with the management staff of the Ministry and got to know that preparations for the Olympics, which was less than a year away, had not started.

In the true Nigerian spirit, it was our view that we should spare no effort to sustain the international sports image of our country. Our target was to re-enact the Atlanta 1996 performance or even improve on it. To this end, we embarked on a progressive approach to drive forward the performance of our athletes and coaches. In my first week in office, I requested all National Sports Federations to furnish me with plans and programmes. I also embarked on a nationwide inspection of our sports facilities.

Subsequently, I constituted a Ministerial Podium Performance Advisory Committee comprising seasoned sports performance professionals to drive our preparations.
At this time, we had hardly qualified for the Olympics in any sport. We focused on both the AFCON and the African Games (both of which were happening in quick succession)while our athletes also participated in Olympic and Paralympic qualification tournaments. This had the disadvantage of compelling the athletes to attain peak performances several times within a short space of time. I was also enlightened that athletes of many countries had qualified almost one year ago and had already structured their training programmes for the Olympics. We were not deterred.

I convened a series of meetings involving the Presidents of the National Sports Federations, their Technical Directors, and Secretaries General. These meetings examined the preparations for the competitions. The Ministerial Podium Performance Advisory Committee was in attendance to discuss and streamline methodologies and training methods in the best possible way, considering the time constraints.

After the African Games, subsequent meetings were limited to the Federations that had bright chances of qualifying for the Olympics. Medal projections were made by all the Federations, although their athletes were still trying to qualify; which lasted until about June 2024. The concerned Federations obviously prioritised qualification over preparations for the Games. This seems to have always been the case. This has to change.
At the end of the qualification period, the selection of athletes and coaches was the absolute responsibility of each Federation. A few attempts to question selection after I got complaints were strongly resisted and defended.

To achieve our targets, we approved onshore training in different locations in the country in addition to the offshore training camps for our teams in Saarbrucken, Germany, and Sevilla, Spain. Ten out of the eleven sports trained in Germany. The choice of the training facilities in Germany was based on the very positive recommendations of the Ministry team and included the President of one of our Federations who, as a former world champion and Olympic gold medal winner, is quite familiar with Olympic-standard facilities and equipment. At the training camp, the Ministerial Podium Performance Advisory Committee offered scientific preparation and mental strength training support.

The very high quality of their participation was confirmed by independent sources comprising athletes, coaches, and team administrators.

In all these, the President and Commander in Chief of the Federation, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ensured that funds were not a limiting factor. Athletes’ competition requirements were provided, allowances were paid early, and training grants were disbursed to all athletes. I made myself readily available to deal with any issue throughout the competition. Therefore, the underwhelming performance of our team is puzzling. We owe Nigerians an explanation.

As a responsible organisation, we have swung into a review process. We shall evaluate the competition readiness of every athlete comprehensively, including their injury and medical history within the limits of patient confidentiality. The role of coaches and administrative staff will also be examined.

There must be a lot of lessons to learn from our performance and improvements must be made in all ramifications. The last time we returned from the Olympics without a medal was in 2012.The next two Olympics after that we’ve had a bronze medal in 2016 and a silver and bronze in the 2020 Olympics. As a country, we deserve more. Let’s turn the disastrous outcome of the 2024 Olympics into a huge positive for Nigerian sports.

Enoh is Nigeria’s Minister of Sports Development, he writes via @OwanEnoh on X