Team Nigeria in Paris: Furore over ‘neglect’ of indigenous coaches for foreigners

As the uproar generated by the inclusion of several American coaches in Team Nigeria to the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games still swirls, GOWON AKPODONOR writes that indigenous coaches are feeling neglected, even as they claim to be better equipped to get their wards to deliver optimum performances, as well as articulate the country’s interest than the foreigners.

What should be the criteria for selecting athletes to represent the country at major international competitions like the Olympic Games, and the World Championships? This question has been making the rounds since the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) made public, the list of coaches that would articulate the country’s interest at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Feeling hard done by such a decision by the AFN, indigenous coaches, pronto vented their spleen for being neglected in preference for foreign coaches on the eve of the Games.
 
They argue that having unearthed, trained, and nurtured most of the athletes to prominence, the AFN decision to “discard them” and pitch tent with foreign coaches, who have no input in the stars’ development was at best, appalling.

The coaches further argued that since they knew the athletes inside out, they were in a better position to bring out the best in them at major competitions.
To buttress their argument, they point to Falilat Ogunkoya, who was discovered and nurtured by an indigenous coach to Olympic glory in 1992 and 1996.

Twenty-eight years ago, Ogunkoya made history as the first and so far only Nigerian athlete to win two medals at the same Olympic Games. Apart from winning Nigeria’s first individual medal in track and field, at the Atlanta ’96 Olympics, courtesy of her African record of 49.10secs, which