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Nigeria's Olympic gold-winning heroine explained the rot in the country's sporting system.
Nigerian track and field legend Chioma Ajunwa revealed that the country did little to support her in preparation for the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, in which she became the first person in the country's history to win a gold medal.
Ajunwa cemented her name in Nigeria's history when her 7.12m leap helped her win gold in the women's long jump event at the 1996 Summer Olympics. She became the first Nigerian to win gold in any event at the Games, just a day before the dream team beat Argentina to win gold.
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What Ajunwa said
Following a disastrous Olympics outing in which Nigeria failed to win any medals, the 46-year-old analysed the problems rocking the country's sport.
She revealed that she did not receive support from the country for the Atlanta 96 Olympics, and it took intervention from Green Eagles legend Segun Odegbami to get her the training she needed to compete and win.
“Winning the Olympics was the best thing to ever happen to me,” Chioma told Channels TV. “I got to the Olympics; I never thought I may get the gold medal, but God being who he is, we thank God he gave it to me.
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“I believe that when one works hard for something, definitely it is going to pay off. I worked very hard, personally, not with the help of Nigeria, but with the help of God and chief Dr. Segun Odegbami, who took me outside the country to make sure I got good training and being who I am, I really put in my best to make sure I paid him back.
She went on to explain that the athletics federation does little to help athletes prepare for the Olympics and that we will continue to struggle if attention is not paid to training.
“To win an Olympic medal is not an easy thing. It doesn't come as a mistake. Don't forget to have several athletes coming to fight for one medal. Every country coming to the Olympics comes with the aim of winning gold.”
“For you to prepare they give you four years to prepare and you think it's something you can manoeuvre and do within six months or three months? No way.
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“As you lay your bed, so shall you lie on it. The athletes were preparing on their own. It's just like somebody going to training. Yes, I may go for training and I get to the training and decide to press my phone.
“And you were at home and you didn't know if I was training, and when I come back with you back, you say welcome back from training; you didn't know the way I trained.
“We forget that when athletes go to training, when they are training by themselves, when they are tired, they relax. But when they have coaches monitoring them, once they get tired, the coach will motivate them to continue because what you do while tired brings improvement.
“Each year, we say the athletes are training but they aren't monitored. And these athletes pay out of pocket for training facilities, and sometimes they cannot afford it. It is important that our country needs to make proper arrangements for the training of our athletes.”
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