Olympics
Paris 2024: “We must return to the drawing board and reset”, says Hameed Adio, Nigeria’s captain to Moscow ‘80
Former Nigeria captain to the Olympics, Hameed Adio has lent his voice to the need for action as Nigeria again underperformed at the Olympics.
In his active days, he competed in men’s 100m.
He is a former broadcaster with the Nigeria Television Authority and served as the manger sports news. As journalist, he covered the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France and the 1999 IAAF World Championships in Seville, Spain.
He has also been sports commisioner in Kwara State and thus eminently qualified to do a post-mortem of the Team Nigeria’s failure at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Hisviews: “ Good morning my dear friend and brother Kunle. Kudos for the wonderful job you are doing at the Paris 2024 Games.
“Your excellent reporting of events at the Games has kept many of us at home abreast of all the happenings at the world’s most prestigious sports fiesta where athletes from different countries strife to push the limit of human potential and rewrite the boundaries of expectations.
“ Nigeria our dear country given our potential is expected to fall into this category but unfortunately we have found ourselves unable to so do due to some painful but avoidable factors.
“Until we go back to the basics, the grassroots, our schools, the incubators where talents in different sports are discovered, nurtured and later developed to stardom, failure will be a recurring decimal”
Continuing, Adio remarked: “Until we consider sports as big business and treated as such and not just as a past time and also see that those running our sports are technically sound, experienced, selfless, committed, and patriotic, the results shall remain as it is at the Paris 2024.”
He further pointed out that round pegs must be fixed into round holes. “Until we completely do away with our usual culture of “fire brigade” approach to our preparations for the Olympics, barren outing will be a continuous exercise.”
Adio pointed out that the country must realize that Olympics is not a “tea party” but an event which should not be treated with kid gloves. “I am afraid we will not get the required results which unfortunately smaller countries in size, population and resources are reaping due to their excellent preparations.”
The Olympic rings installed on the Eiffel Tower since June to celebrate the upcoming Olympic Games were removed from the Parisian monument early on Friday morning, as confirmed by an AFP photographer. But the Paris City Hall intends to replace them with a more permanent structure until 2028.
The five-coloured rings, measuring 29 metres in length and 15 metres in height, were placed between the first and second levels of the iconic iron structure on 7 June.
According to Inside the Games publication, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wants the Olympic symbol to continue decorating the monument until the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
But the descendants of the tower’s creator, Gustave Eiffel are opposing the move. They are insisting that the Olympic rings are aesthetically in conflict with the concept and design of the Tower.
The 30-tonne rings initially installed on the Eiffel Tower were also not designed to withstand winter weather conditions.
Olympics
Despite Egypt winning 3 medals at Paris Olympics, President Al-Sisi orders sports system overhaul
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered a comprehensive evaluation of sports federations that participatedat the Paris Olympic Games, following a mission report submitted by the country’s sports minister.
The mandate includes a thorough expenditure check and a performance review to better highlight areas of improvement and fund allocation in future Games.
Additionally, the president plans to take necessary measures against federations —such as limiting funds— that had negative results in the Paris Games.
Egypt’s participation in sports where it lacks a competitive advantage will also be limited, as the president aims to direct resources to promising athletes to ensure optimal results. The president also aims to reduce administrative and technical staff within Olympic delegations and task relevant ministries with preparing future Olympic athletes.
Al-Sisi’s Olympic overhaul is to be presented to the cabinet for approval and urged the government to prioritise amending the sports law for the House of Representatives for review.
Egypt took home a total of three medals in the Summer Games. Ahmed El-Gendy triumphed in modern pentathlon, Sara Samir claimed the silver in weightlifting, and 21-year-old fencer Mohamed El-Sayed earned the bronze.
-Insidethegames
Paris 2024 sold a record 12 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, beating the Games record previously set by London 2012, organisers said on Sunday.
Some 9.5 million tickets were sold for the Olympics and 2.5 million for the Paralympics, which end on Sunday.
In 2012, London organisers set the record for the Paralympics with 2.7 million tickets sold but only 8.2 million were sold for the Olympics.
-Reuters
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