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When Nigeria’s athletes get down to competing against the best in the world, they discovered that their new kits hadn’t arrived.
Now finally, after 13 days of competition and with only three to go, the Nigerian 2016 gear has made it to Rio, replacing the World Athletics Championship garb that had been dusted off for the purpose.
Unfortunately, of course, most of Nigeria’s athletes have already competed, and some of them have already gone home.
The Nigerian team faced backlash from the country and Africa as a whole when they stepped around the Maracana in tracksuits during the Rio Olympics opening ceremony without the usual traditional outfits. It wasn’t an aesthetic decision so much as a logistical problem.
Despite the fact that the team had worn the outfits at a handover ceremony with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, they failed to make the transatlantic trip to Brazil in time.
ABOVE PHOTO: Nigeria’s athletes appeared in tracksuits at the opening ceremony instead of special outfits (below) which did not arrived on time (Photo: Getty)
Nigeria’s Comic Olympic Attire that failed to make it to the Olympics ob time
It hasn’t been a successful campaign from Africa’s most populous nation, with a grand total of zero medals on the board thus far.
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They also missed out in London, after winning 4 in Beijing to round off a 20-year period when they were ever present on the podium clutching won medals.
Two athletes told the BBC that the kit – and the ceremony outfits, destined never to be seen by the world – arrived on Thursday.
“We are disappointed and embarrassed. We’ve been wearing kits from the World Athletics Championship,” one of the athletes said.
The kit snafu is not the only timekeeping problem encountered by Nigeria’s Olympians.
The football team, which features Chelsea’s Jon Obi Mikel amongst a team of young talent from European clubs such as Anderlecht and Roma, arrived only hours before their first game, having been held up in Atlanta due to problems paying for their flights.
The setback didn’t hurt the team’s efforts, and they play Honduras for a possible bronze medal tomorrow, but financial troubles have dogged the broader Olympic squad.
A Nigerian athletics official told journalists that the £1.3m budgeted by Nigeria’s government for the tournament was not released all at once.
“Money meant for the Games was held tightly by [sport] ministry officials and they were just releasing money piecemeal,” the official is quoted as saying.
