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.

The 2024 Paris Olympics ended at the weekend with Team Nigeria missing on the overall medals table, which some other African countries, including Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, Botswana, South Africa, and Uganda made it into.

Team Nigeria fielded 88 athletes, the highest number that has ever represented the country at the Olympics.

The first batch of Nigeria’s contingent to the Paris Games returned to the country on Monday, while the second batch arrived yesterday.

An official, who spoke with The Guardian at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, yesterday, said: “Things were going on smoothly in the camp until the Federal Government paid the athletes their training grants,” the official said, adding: “The government paid each foreign-based athlete the sum of $6,000, while the home-based stars got $1,500 each. However, the home-based athletes were furious following the disparity. To them, all athletes who made Team Nigeria’s contingent to the Paris Olympics deserved equal treatment from the Federal Government because they passed through various stages to qualify for the Olympics.

“From the moment the training grants were paid, things began to take a different shape in the camp. And what followed was a series of bad results from the competition venues. The same thing occurred at the London 2012 Olympics. I remember that day when Blessing Okagbare finished last in the 100m final, and the ‘jubilation’ by some of the athletes in the camp over Okagbare’s