(Photo by Damien MEYER / AFP)
Nigeria has ended the 2024 Paris Olympics without a medal. Hannah Reuben lost her Women’s Freestyle 76kg fight early Saturday to effectively put the country’s slim hope of making the podium to rest. She lost 5-2 to Mongolia’s Enkh-Amaryn Davaanasan in the round of 16 tie, capping off a woeful showing for the West African nation.
Team Nigeria went to the Olympics on the back of some great performances in qualifying events. They registered for 12 events, but sadly like previous Games failed to translate its continental dominance at the Olympics.
Sbout 77 athletes left the country for the Games in Paris but a series of heartbreaking losses and some administrative lapses have seen Nigeria return home without a medal. The last time that happened was at the London Games in 2012.
President Bola Tinubu had approved N12 billion for the country’s outing at the Olympics and the Paralympics. N9bn was earmarked for the former while N 3bn was budgeted for the latter.
In the wake of Nigeria’s poor outing at the Paris Olympics, the Minister of Sports Development John Enoh described the performances as a disaster.
“Yesterday, I met with gentlemen of the press at the Nigerian Embassy in Paris for a press briefing following the country’s participation in the 2024 Olympics. As we go back home, we must do everything to prevent future occurrences of the Paris disaster and if this will entail the review of how people are elected to lead our sporting federations, it will be done.
“The elections for the federations are around the corner, and it will be the perfect platform to get only those who are most eligible to lead the various sports federations,” he wrote on his X handle on Saturday.
“Team Nigeria’s disappointing performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the country did not secure any medals does not entail being addressed just by our participation at the Olympics, but it is a product of very many other things that need immediate attention.
“We did everything as a ministry to prepare the athletes adequately and provide them with every financial support, but unfortunately, the performance did not produce any podium finish,”
Nigeria’s showing at the Paris Games were before now replicated in of 1952 Helsinki, 1956 Melbourne, 1960 Rome, 1968 Mexico, 1980 Moscow, 1988 Seoul where the country won no medal.
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