How payment of $6,000 ‘training grants’ to foreign-based athletes rocked Nigeria’s camp 

Factors that may have inhibited the country’s performance at the just-concluded Paris 2024 Olympics are beginning to emerge with an official of Team Nigeria hinting The Guardian that the payment of $6,000 “training grants to athletes in the middle of the Games” was one of them.

The 2024 Paris Olympics ended at the weekend with Team Nigeria missing on the overall medals table, which some other African countries, including Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, Botswana, South Africa, and Uganda made it into.

Team Nigeria fielded 88 athletes, the highest number that has ever represented the country at the Olympics.

The first batch of Nigeria’s contingent to the Paris Games returned to the country on Monday, while the second batch arrived yesterday.

An official, who spoke with The Guardian at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, yesterday, said: “Things were going on smoothly in the camp until the Federal Government paid the athletes their training grants,” the official said, adding: “The government paid each foreign-based athlete the sum of $6,000, while the home-based stars got $1,500 each. However, the home-based athletes were furious following the disparity. To them, all athletes who made Team Nigeria’s contingent to the Paris Olympics deserved equal treatment from the Federal Government because they passed through various stages to qualify for the Olympics.

“From the moment the training grants were paid, things began to take a different shape in the camp. And what followed was a series of bad results from the competition venues. The same thing occurred at the London 2012 Olympics. I remember that day when Blessing Okagbare finished last in the 100m final, and the ‘jubilation’ by some of the athletes in the camp over Okagbare’s failure.

When some of the athletes are sad, it is always difficult for Team Nigeria to excel at major sporting events.

“Till now, I have yet to come to terms with why the Federal Government decided to pay training grants to our athletes in the middle of an Olympic Games. What for? … To win an Olympic medal takes three to four years of preparation. You can’t just put athletes in a camp in Germany for just two or three weeks and expect them to win Olympic medals. Long before the Paris Olympics, some of us spoke out on the need to pay the athletes their training grants so that they could pay their nutritionists, and coaches and also stay away from competing in every competition to raise money, but no one listened. To me, paying athletes training grants in the middle of an important event like the Olympic Games was a wrong step. The Federal Government got it all wrong in Paris,” the official said.

The sports minister, John Owan Enoh did not respond to a message sent to his mobile phone on the issue, yesterday.

Meanwhile, Paris 2024 Olympics 200m finalist, Favour Ofili is expected to move several places up in World Athletics’ rankings when it is released this week.

The U.S.-based Ofili finished sixth in the 200m event at Stade de France and will not only be scored based on her performance, but she will also benefit from the placing score for making it to the final.

Ofili was ranked the 31st best in the event before the Paris 2024 Olympics with her ranking score being 1,226 points, but she may move up into the top 15 when the rankings are released.

Also expected to rise is Ese Brume who placed fifth in the long jump event, while the duo of Ruth Usoro and Prestina Ochonogor will not earn any placing score because they did not finish among the first eight.

Shot putter, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi is also expected to rise above the eighth position he currently occupies following his sixth-place finish at the Paris Olympics.

While Ofili, Brume, and Enekwechi are expected to rise, World Record Holder in the 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan is expected to drop from her pre-Paris 2024 Olympics fifth place with her 1,392 points.

Amusan did not make it to the final and will not benefit from any placing score, which would have heavily impacted her overall ranking score.

Newly crowned Olympics 100m hurdles champion, Masai Russell is expected to move above Amusan from her pre-Olympics best of 15th (1326 ranking score) because she has earned over 200 points for placing first at the Paris Olympics.