Nigeria’s Poor Performance at Beijing 2008
Though the Olympics is held every four years, Nigeria has never shown commitment towards adequate preparation and consequent performance.
Nigeria went with about 40 contingents, 40 officials and 14 million dollars but came back with only four medals (one silver and three bronze).
The only area that drew the world attention to us in the Olympic is soccer. In soccer, we narrowly missed gold medal with 1-0 defeat by Argentina and settled for silver medal. Even at that, it was the best of the four medals won by Nigeria.
However, we praise the medallists from football, taekwando and athletics (long jump and 4 x 100m relay, all women) for etching their names on the Olympics record book. They are all worthy ambassadors of our great country.
The level of Nigeria’s failure at Beijing was so dismal because of our poor level of preparedness and lack of standard and sophisticated training facilities.
Despite the cream of multi-talented people on Nigerian soil, the level of training for the athletes is largely poor.
While government has not invested much in sports development, the coaches in various fields are not determined for self improvement. Thus, the athletes who won medals (like Miss Okagbere who won bronze in long jump) are trained by foreign coaches. Most countries that excelled relied heavily on access to good training facilities.
Nigeria’s poor performance not withstanding, the Beijing Olympics has been described as the most colorful and most glamorous.
The Bird Nest Stadium which played host to the athletes from over 200 countries for 16 days, is one of the best in the world. China invested more than 40 billion dollars in the games which it viewed as a chance to show the world its dramatic economic progress.
From the opening ceremony, through the actual events to the closing ceremony, it was clear that what the Chinese have done for this Olympics Games, and what they have put in for the athletes is simply amazing.
China, nonetheless achieved its paramount goal. They succeeded in organizing a near-flawless game that showcased world class technology and their athletes paid back the effort by topping the gold medal table for the first time in history. China’s haul of 51 gold medals was the largest since the Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988.
Apart from 1936, when Nazi Germany prevailed at the Berlin Olympics, only the US or the Soviet Union/Russia had always led the gold medal table.
It was also an Olympics where more world records were broken than ever. Led by Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, athletes broke 43 world records and 132 Olympic records during the games. Phelps bagged 8 gold medals in swimming and realized his dream of beating Mark Spitz’s record from 1972 of seven golds in a game. Bolt, a Jamaican, broke the 100 meters and 200 metres sprinters world record and became the fastest man on earth.
The lesson is that China did not achieve these feats from nothing. They worked for it. China’s hard work and efforts is largely responsible for the many great performances in this year’s games. They fielded athletes groomed since childhood in sports academics.
But in Nigeria, we never prepare for international events until the eleventh hour. If we must make the required impact, then there should be no time to relax in training our athletes. The end of one game should mark the beginning of another. We must start working towards London 2012 Olympic Games now. We must look inwards at mistakes that cost us medals and plug all loopholes.
Provision of training facilities has been a major problem in Nigeria. We need government to improve the funding of sports. There is also need for public-private sector partnership in sports development.
The technical officials and athletes must as well develop their talents for the overall good of the country.
The Dream Team iv that won the silver medal at Beijing provides an opportunity to put right our dwindling fortune in football. They should be encouraged and nurtured to become Senior Eagles. Above all, there must be genuine search for quality athletes nationwide.