Tuesday 1 January 2013

American friends mocked me over London 2012 shame - Modupe Oshikoya

 by  Ganiyu Salman
OLYMPIAN Modupe Oshikoya has said that the debacle of Team Nigeria at the London 2012 Olympics gave her a lot of sleepless nights, just as she recalls the ordeal she went through having to react to various queries raised by her American friends.

Oshikoya, who won five gold medals at the 1973 and 1978 All Africa Games, stated this in a chat with Tribunesport.

“What happened at the last Olympics was a disaster, it was depressing and I felt terribly disappointed by our performance. Everybody around me in my base  (California) started asking me what happened to Nigeria and all that? it was really discouraging.

“I hope that with the step already taken by Mr President (Goodluck Jonathan), we should have a better future in sport in this country. The sport retreat I understand has been held but we have to start implementing what we have now so as bring the athletes together in a conducive atmosphere now instead of waiting till the last minute.

“We have to stop fire brigade approach. They have to be given the training they need to be able to compete with other world-class athletes,” said the 58-year old former queen of the track and field.

She stressed the need for proper encouragement of athletes in the country in a bid to get the desired results.

“We have to encourage our athletes, many of them are right there yearning for the authorities to assist them realise their dreams. For me, the government has tried for me, I was offered scholarships to study abroad and all that and so, I appreciate what the government has done for me. I think I’m blessed, I did sports because I loved doing it.

“During our time, the kind of encouragement even from the government alone is incomparable to what obtains now. Everything was well organised then and each athlete was always encouraged to put in her best. Again, there were so many competitions for us at the school level such as inter-school competitions, Ghana/Nigeria, Togo/Nigeria Games and so on.

“Our athletes are suffering and they need support. we can even hold a fund raising in aid of these young talents so that they can get the desired training that would give  them big hope in their careers. We have to encourage them to read by giving  them scholarship,” the 1974 Commonwealth Games medallist remarked.
NigerianTribune

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