By Dipo Olowookere
Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Solomon Dalung, has disclosed that athletes do not need too many preparations to excel in competitions.
His comment is coming when Nigerians are still boiling with anger over the poor preparation Team Nigeria athletes were forced to go through, which caused their abysmal performance at the just-concluded 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.
Mr Dalung, who studied law, while speaking on Brila FM, monitored in Lagos by Vanguard, said the sterling performance by Team Nigeria athletes at the on-going Paralympic Games, also in Brazil, is a great testament to his assertion.
The Minister noted that 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 trained 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.
Vanguard
