Nigerian Govt apologises to citizens after poor 2024 Olympics outing

The Nigerian government has apologised for the country’s performance at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, where it failed to win any medal.

The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh on Sunday said the country’s performance at the Games fell short of expectations.

President Bola Tinubu’s administration earlier expressed disappointment and concern over Team Nigeria’s failure to secure a single medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, prompting calls for reforms to improve sports administration in the country.

Similarly in a statement posted on his X account on Sunday, Enoh said, “The Olympic Games, Paris 2024, has ended, and I accept that our performance should have been a lot better. It obviously fell short of our objectives, expectations, and hopes of Nigerians.

“I must apologize to our compatriots and reflect on what went wrong while looking forward to the Paralympic Games, Paris 2024(August 28- September 8th).

“When I assumed office as the Minister of Sports Development in August 2023, I was confronted with the task of executing four international competitions namely the AFCON, the African Games,the Olympic and Paralympic Games in a matter of a few months.

“I was also reminded that the Olympic Games is the world’s supreme sports competition, and countries require at least four years to prepare for it.

“I held extensive discussions with the management staff of the Ministry and got to know that preparations for the Olympics, which was less than a year away, had not started.

“In the true Nigerian spirit, it was our view that we should spare no effort to sustain the international sports image of our country.

“Our target was to re-enact the Atlanta 1996 performance or even improve on it. To this end, we embarked on a progressive approach to drive forward the performance of our athletes and coaches.”

He added, “To achieve our targets, we approved onshore training in different locations in the country in addition to the offshore training camps for our teams in Saarbrucken, Germany, and Sevilla, Spain.

“Ten out of the eleven sports trained in Germany. The choice of the training facilities in Germany was based on the very positive recommendations of the Ministry team and included the President of one of our Federations who as a former world champion and Olympic gold medal winner, is quite familiar with Olympic-standard facilities and equipment.

“At the training camp, the Ministerial Podium Performance Advisory Committee offered scientific preparation and mental strength training support.”

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