The Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, has apologized to Nigerians over the poor outing of Nigeria at the 2024 Olympic Games in France.
INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that Team Nigeria registered 88 athletes who participated in 12 events but could not secure any medal.
Addressing media on Saturday, during a press conference in Abuja, the Minister said that the country’s delegates should have done better, adding that the entire sports ministry owe Nigerians explanation.
He said: “The Olympic Games, Paris 2024, have 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.
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“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.
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.
“As a responsible organisation, we have swung into a review process. We shall evaluate the competition readiness of every athlete comprehensively, including their injury and medical history within the limits of patient confidentiality.
“The role of coaches and administrative staff will also be examined.
“There must be a lot of lessons to learn from our performance and improvements must be made in all ramifications.
“The last time we returned from the Olympics without a medal was in 2012.The next two Olympics after that we’ve had a bronze medal in 2016 and a silver and bronze in the 2020 Olympics.
“As a country, we deserve more.Let’s turn the disastrous outcome of the 2024 Olympics to a huge positive for Nigerian sports.”
