NOC sponsors Anyanacho to Germany’s high performance centre

In its bid to ensure adequate training for Nigerian athletes ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has secured an International Olympic Committee (IOC) sponsored training scholarship at Germany’s high-performance centre for national taekwondo champion, Elizabeth Oluchi Anyanacho.

Anyanacho joins eight other Nigerian athletes, who had earlier been captured in the IOC/NOC scholarship scheme ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The latest NOC scholar is expected to move to the Taekwondo Competence Centre (TCC), Friedrichshafen in Germany, to boost her preparation and qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Speaking on Anyanacho’s scholarship, NOC Secretary General, Banji Oladapo, said the Committee is determined to ensure adequate preparation for the country’s best athletes, which would lead them to the Games championing the Olympic values.

He revealed that the Taekwondo Competence Centre (TCC) Friedrichshafen, combines sports-scientific, innovative know-how in theory and practice, and connects science, research and sports-practical work at the highest level.

“Anyanacho will train under a well-developed training structure, which is supervised by world-class coaches and scientific personnel. This is a pilot programme to aid the development of taekwondo in Nigeria,” Oladapo noted.

Anyanacho was Nigeria’s sole representative in the taekwondo event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where she became the country’s first woman athlete in the sport at the Olympics in 16 years.

Although the Statistics undergraduate of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) lost her fight against a much mature and experienced Olympic medalist, Nur Tartar of Turkey, she left lasting impressions that made taekwondo officials dub her the future of the sport.

Anyanacho is mentored and coached by Nigeria’s taekwondo Olympic medalist and icon, Chika Chukwumerije.