Paris Olympics: Minister admits shortcomings, vows to improve for paralympics

11.08.2024 - 18:05 guardian.ng

Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan-Enoh, has admitted the shortcomings of Team Nigeria at the Paris 2024 Olympics and vowed to improve for the Paralympics.Team Nigeria finished its campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympics without winning a single medal.

Hannah Reuben was the last athlete with a chance to salvage a medal for Nigeria, but she, like her colleagues, failed on Saturday.

She lost her second-round fight in women’s freestyle wrestling (76kg), losing 5-2 (Victory by points) to Mongolia’s Davaanasan Amar Enkh.It has been a chastening Olympics for Nigerian sports, marking the country’s worst outing at the global showpiece since London 2012.

Team Nigeria had hopes of winning medals, thanks to the likes of Tobi Amusan, Favour Ofili, and Ese Brume, but it ended in disappointment as they all faltered.Minister Owan-Enoh, reacting to Nigeria’s disappointing outing at Paris 2024 on Sunday via a post on his X account, admitted the team failed. “The Olympic Games, Paris 2024, has ended, and I accept that our performance should have been a lot better.

paralympics Paris 2024 Paris Olympics Mongolia Nigeria

As it were at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where Nigeria failed to win any medal, the situation at the on going World U20 Championships in Lime, Peru, is pointing at similar direction after long jumper, Prestina Ochonogor failed to win a medal on Wednesday night.

Minister explains decision to pay athletes’ training grants in Paris

Sports Minister, John Enoh, has explained his decision to pay both foreign and home-based athletes their training grants midway into the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Dichotomy between foreign, home-based athletes unhealthy, Ojeli tells govt

• Still in shock over 4x400m relay team’s disqualification A member of Team Nigeria to the Paris 2024 Olympics, Emmanuel Ojeli, has described some of the controversies that dogged the country’s participation at the Games as avoidable. Ojeli, a 400m runner, who made his second Olympics appearance in Paris, said, yesterday, in Lagos that the Federal Government’s decision to rate foreign-based athletes higher than their home-based counterparts, especially in terms of grants and allowances was counterproductive.

Sports enthusiasts seek forensic probe into Team Nigeria’s poor performance

Some Sports stakeholders in the country have called for a forensic probe into the poor performance of Team Nigeria at the just concluded Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

How payment of $6,000 ‘training grants’ to foreign-based athletes rocked Nigeria’s camp

Factors that may have inhibited the country’s performance at the just-concluded Paris 2024 Olympics are beginning to emerge with an official of Team Nigeria hinting The Guardian that the payment of $6,000 “training grants to athletes in the middle of the Games” was one of them.

Abuja Velodrome used for religious activities, not cycling — Ukpeseraye

Nigerian cyclist, Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye, who recently competed in the Paris Olympics, has stated that Nigeria will continue to lag in cycling until sports administrators end their preference for renting out its velodrome for religious services.