In exactly five days time, the 2024 Olympic Games which is the 33rd edition of the world’s biggest sports festival begins in Paris, France. It will end on August 11, making it exactly

21 days of stiff but healthy competition among 206 participating countries, Nigeria inclusive.

Team Nigeria is expected to be represented by a strong(?) team of 88 athletes in 11 sports. Out of this number, women take the biggest chunk of 62.

Traditionally the athletes are prepared for the quadrennial event by the Sports Development Ministry which hands them over to the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC which takes them to the Games. This is because it is the only body recognized by the International Olympic Committee, IOC, organizers of the Games.

But between the Sports Development Ministry and the NOC, how much did they prepare the athletes for this great event?

Even though the founder of modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin said that what is important is participation and not winning, no country goes into the Games hoping to return without a medal of any hue .

Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, an American polymath is quoted to have said: “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”.

In the case of sports, we can add that it doesn’t make a man or woman only healthy, wealthy and wise but a winner too.

Therefore, the question Nigerians should be asking the Sports Minister, Senator John Enoh is how prepared are our athletes for this Olympics?

This question is pertinent because of the minister ’s belief that Team Nigeria to the Paris Olympics will surpass the achievement of the 1996 team at that year ’s Games in Atlanta, USA.

In 1996, against all predictions, Team Nigeria recorded two gold medals, one individual gold from women’s Long Jump and the second from the football team, the U-23 Eagles.

The individual gold, the first in Nigeria’s history was from policewoman, then Miss Chioma Ajunwa while the football gold, also the country’s and in fact Africa’s first in Olympics football gold was from a mixture of players from the heroic 1994 World Cup Super Eagles and the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Cup champions, the Golden Eaglets.

I think Nigerians should be reminded that the feat by Ajunwa especially was not as a result of any serious planning by either the Sports Ministry nor the NOC.

To rub it in, when Ajunwa leaped the gold winning 7.12m to dust the world leading jumper that year, Fiona May of Italy, there were no officials of either the ministry nor the AFN around to give her the Nigerian flag to celebrate with. She was like an independent athlete competing under no country.

Ajunwa’s jump was not only a Nigerian record but an African and Commonwealth record which put her ahead of not only I t a l y ’ s M a y b u t U S A’ s J a c k i e J o y n e r – K e r s e e w h o w a s t h e 1 9 8 8 Champion in the event but managed the bronze medal.

She also became the first ever African woman to win a gold medal in a field event at the Olympics and 24 years after, Ajunwa remains Nigeria’s only individual Olympic gold medallist in Track and Field. Also, her mark stood as the National and African Record in the women’s Long Jump for 25 years until her compatriot, Ese Brume broke it in 2021 when she leaped

7.17m

It could be recalled that while the Sports Ministry and the AFN ignored Ajunwa who was just returning from a drug ban which contested then and still does till today, Segun Odegbami, a retired Green Eagles player then picked up Ajunwa’s pieces and supported her in various forms till that gold medal was won. For his contribution to the Ajunwa’s feat, Odegbami got a Chieftaincy title from Mbaise clan in Imo state.

So when I hear Senator Enoh say that Team Nigeria will surpass the 1996, I want to ask, what gives him the confidence to so speak?

We are told the time to begin preparing for a podium performance at world championships or Olympic Games is immediately one ends, meaning it takes almost a four-year circle, not a few months like Nigerian sports officials think or believe.

Among the Nigerian sports officials, including the Sports Minister, the only person who knows the form of his athletes is the President of the Wrestling Federation, Dr. Daniel Igali. He doesn’t speculate but tells you the position of each of his athletes with facts based on their forms compared with their competitors around the world who they are expected to meet in Paris.

Igali knows because he trains with his athletes almost always before and during competitions. This is because he was a world class athlete himself and knows what it takes to prepare for competitions at that level to be on the podium.

The Sports Minister is just a politician appointed by the President to supervise the sector. He doesn’t know much about the form of the athletes he presented to the NOC for this Paris Games. So his hope for a repeat of Atlanta 1996 Olympics feat or to surpass it is not backed by any empirical proof.

He’s banking on Tobi Amusan who is the hottest cake in her field now as well as Brume and two wrestlers Igali believes in for a podium performance, Odunayo Adekuroye and Blessing Oborodudu.

The N12 billion the President approved for Team Nigeria’s participation at the Games will not do any magic without adequate preparation of the athletes. It is like putting the cart before the horse.

All we can say is let the Games begin. Again like before, our very determined athletes could spring surprises like they always do.