This is a very beautiful weekend for sports. The Paris Olympic Games, the 33rd edition of the Games, will end tomorrow Sun-day 11 August 2024 in Paris, France. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), organisers of the Games, will hand over the flag to the host city of the next edition, Los Angeles, as part of the ceremonies marking the end of the Games. As the world bids bye to Paris, an event that serves as prelude to the 2024/25 English Premier League season, one of the most glamorous and most followed league in the world, will take place today at the Wembley sta-dium with the Community Shield match between Manchester Unit-ed, winners of last season’s FA Cup and Premier League win-ners, Manchester City. A week af-ter the Community Shield game, the Premier League kicks off. Nigeria, which registered 88 athletes for the Games, is one of the 184 countries that were in Paris. But before the conclusion of events on Friday, August 9, 2024, the country was yet to win a medal of any colour, implying that she might return from Paris empty handed. After Tobi Amusan failed to qualify for the final of the 100m low hurdles on Friday, all Team Nigeria hopes of winning a med-al were extinguished. The last straw was when Nigeria’s 4×400 men relay team, which had ear-lier on Friday qualified for the final, was later disqualified over lane violation. In wrestling, Blessing Ob-orududu and Odunayo Ade-kuoroye, who were touted to win medal at the Games failed when it mattered most. While Adekuoroye did not reach the semifinal, even as Oborududu lost in the semis and equally lost the bronze medal match. Ese Brume, who led two of her compatriots to the final of the women’s long jump final placed fifth on Friday, thereby failing to win a medal. Before her, track and field athletes were falling like pack of cards. Favour Ofilli still expecting the outcome of the enquiry promised by the Sports Minister, Senator John Enoh, as to why she was not registered for the 100m women’s event, placed sixth in the final of the women’s 200 meter. She could also not qualify the women’s 4x100m relay team for the final. In Table Tennis the country’s athletes did not fare better. They all crashed out of the Games at the first hurdle. Offiong Edem, Quadri Aruna, Olajide Omotayo, and Fatima Bello represented the country. In weightlifting, it was also tale of woes. Rafiatu Lawal in the 59kg placed fifth in the final. As at press time on Friday, Ni-geria’s second representative in the weightlifting, Joy Ogbonne Eze was yet to take part. She got the opportunity to represent Ni-geria in Paris after getting the needed ranking points to finish among the top 11 weightlifters in the world. Who knows what will be the outcome of her out-ing? Football was an eyesore as Super Falcons lost all their three games to exit ignominiously. Bas-ketball was the only team that gave Nigerians something to cheer. Against all expectations, D’Tigress beat third ranked team in the world, Australia 75- 62 in their opening game. Though they lost to the host team, France ranked seventh, 54-75, they ral-lied to beat fifth ranked Canada 79-70 in their group final game to qualify for the quarterfinal and become the first African team-men and women- to achieve such a feat. Playing USA in the quarterfinal was huge mountain to climb, but they were not dis-graced losing 74-88 to a team that has won the last seven Olympics basketball gold medal. The Nige-rian ladies exited the Games with their head held high. My column last Saturday was on Nigerian basketball, where I posited that had the Musa Kida led board had a conducive environment to operate; D’Tigress achievement in Paris would have been a child play.
The issue is not about Nigeri-an basketball, but Team Nigeria performance in Paris. As at press time, 11 African countries were spotted on the medal table, but the acclaimed ‘Giant of Africa’ is conspicuously missing, and the chances of winning a medal is very remote if not impossible. Of all the sporting federa-tions in the country, the Athlet-ics Federation of Nigeria seems to be most controversial and not-ed for controversies. Because of AFN’s ineptitude, ten Nigerian athletes were denied participa-tion at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 because the federation did not undertake the mandatory out of competition test for them. This administrative lapse was why hammer thrower Annette Nneka Echikunwoke did not
