Nigerian track and field athletes left for France with high hopes of winning at least two medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics Games, but that unity of purpose was chattered when the Sports Ministry decided to pay the athletes training grants in the middle of a competition.
A sharp difference in the payment of the grants between the homebased athletes and foreign based athletes caused a furore in camp and ultimately, affected team spirit.
“This was a major distraction caused by the Sports Ministry. How do you explain to us that foreign based athletes were paid $5,000 and we the home based were paid $1,500?” One of the home-based Olympians lamented.
“This caused a lot of grumbles in camp, and it affected our performances, most especially in the relays where we could be done better in the final.”
It was gathered that all the athletes that qualified for the Olympics were meant to be paid $5,000 training grants each before the start of the games, but this did not happen until a few days to the start of the athletics event.
Quarter-miler Emmanuel Ojeli confirmed the distraction recently in Lagos during a news conference saying:
“Everyone should be treated equally; how can you pay foreign based athletes four times higher than the homebased?
“They should stop this practice it us killing our moral and the sport. At the last African Games, home based athletes did most the work, yet they weren’t paid any grants.
“Many athletics followers though praised the Sports Ministry for the gesture, but they argued that the timing was wrong.”This was a ‘competition grant’ not a training grant,” said an athletics coach.
“The Minister simply gave the athletes shopping money, and it was a major distraction, coupled with the fact that the home-based felt shortchanged in the payment, that alone caused disaffection and when you consider that the home-based athletes are the backbone of the team.”
