As Nigerians still seethe with anger over the poor
preparation Team Nigeria athletes had which
resulted in their woeful outing at the 2016 Rio
Olympic Games in Brazil last, Minister of Youth
and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung may further
infuriate them with his latest claim that athletes
don’t need too much preparation to excel in
competitions.
Speaking yesterday on Brila FM radio monitored
in Lagos in the wake of the sterling performance
posted so far by Team Nigeria athletes at the
on-going Paralympic Games also in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, Dalung said the Paralympic
athletes also had bad preparations like their able
bodied athletes but are doing better in Brazil.
According to Dalung, “the disabled athletes have
shown that all you need is a winning mentality
and not too much preparation, they train-ed
under the same condition with their able bodied
counterparts but they are winning medals now.”
However, Commonwealth champion, Odunayo
Adekuruoye also speaking on the same
programme countered the minister, saying that
there is no way an athlete who trained for a
month or two could do well or think of winning a
medal as she apologised to her fans for failing
them at the Olympics.
“It is not possible to win a medal with one or
two months training. We had looked forward to
good training and hoped to do well at the
Olympics. I want to apologise to Nigerians who
had looked up to me for a medal,” she said.
The publicity-seeking sports minister who had
kept sealed lips following the poor outing at the
Rio Olympics jerked back to his usual self
ostensibly because of the performance of the
Paralympic athletes who have garnered a total of
nine medals consisting six gold, two silver and
one bronze.
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