A Fitful Dream

Dream team players celebrating one of their goals

Nigeria's Olympic football team, the Dream Team IV, writes the country’s name in gold as they reach the final again, after 12 years
By Oji Odu
As predicted by many pundits, the performance of Team Nigeria at the just-concluded Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was anything but honourable.
While many athletes were hauling in medals for their countries, it was a tale of woes and disappointments as Nigerian athletes dropped out of their events without any medals. The only medal came from the nation's male football team, the Dream Team IV whose scintillating performances stunned the world as they qualified for the finals of the soccer event, after mauling Belgium in the semi-finals.
Before getting to that stage, the team had overrun the United States of America (USA) team 2-1, beat Cote d’Ivoire 2-0 and played goalless with Holland.
The Nigerian Dream Team had in the 1996 Atlanta, USA Olympics defeated the Argentines 3-2 to clinch the gold medal – a match that went into extra-time after a 2-2 draw at full time.
President Umaru Yar’Adua had earlier charged the sports authorities and the athletes to bring back at least eight gold medals from the 2008 XXIV Olympiad although no adequate preparations had been hampered by lack of funds. Some of the athletes who were bouyant enough sponsored themselves to foreign countries for training while the poor ones remained in camps in the country trying their best under pitiable conditions.
Former 400 metres champion, Innocent Egbunike, had lamented the nation's poor build-up to the XXIV Olympiad and stated categorically that it would make the task of winning a medal of any kind more difficult. He said that although his original agreement with the nation's sports authorities was to take charge of Team Nigeria in April 2008, he only joined them in Beijing.
Egbunike: “Ideally, if we had stuck to the agreement, I would have been very confident of being able to get the team that would be able to compete favourably with others.
“But as it is, I have only come in contact with them here in Beijing, which makes things a little more difficult but not impossible…”, the former top class quartermiler said.
Olusoji Fasuba, the continent's 100 metres champion and currently the world's fastest man in the 60-meter dash was eclipsed by the likes of Asafa Powell, Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay as he fell by the wayside in the second round of the heats hit. He had led the others until the 50-metre mark before he was overtaken.
US-based Oludamola Osayomi, the 2007 All African Games double sprint champion also crashed out in the second semi-finals (100 meters), clocking a dismal 11.44 seconds to take the eight place in a race won by Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser who returned at 11.05 seconds.
In the 100 meters hurdles, Toyin Augustus' 13.34 seconds time placed her seventh in heat four of the event as she crashed out, even as the nation's female quarter milers: Folashade Abugan, Ajoke Odumosu and Joy Eze crashed out in the semi-finals of the 400 meters, with their timings as 51.30 seconds, 52.45 seconds and 51.87 second respectively. The poor performances continued in wrestling, boxing, and weight lifting as the so-called “minnows” like Zimbabwe, Cameroun, Togo, Algeria registered their names on the medal's table.
Meanwhile, apart from shoddy preparations, there was the kits scandal which rocked Team Nigeria and Dream Team IV, demoralising the athletes who were forced to use the same jerseys over and over again, washing them after each use.
The kits donated to the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) by the Japanese Olympic Committee was handed over to the National Sports Commission (NSC) a forthnight before the games, but were left behind in Nigeria for unexplainable reasons. The kits only arrived when most of the athletes had crashed out of their events. Reports indicate that they had to resort to wearing them as a way of showcasing Nigeria.
Lamenting the poor performance of the country's representatives, Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State described it as an embarrassment and advocated for a total overhaul of the sports policies and system so as to create room for more seriousness and dedication on the part of both the athletes and administrators.
Suswam: “In a country of over 140 million people, we are yet to celebrate a medal, while small and less-endowed countries are achieving greater feats. What that means is that we have not done the right things as far as sports development in this country is concerned.
“We need to dedicate more time and show more seriousness in the area of sports development than we have done at the moment, otherwise what we have now is a total embarrassment to a country of over 140 million, without a medal to celebrate. It doesn’t make sense at all,” the Benue State helmsman said.
However, it was not all woeful outings for Africans as Ethiopia's 26-year-old Kenenisia Bekele won the 10,000 metres gold in 27 minutes, 17 seconds, while Francoise Mbango of Cameroun successfully defended the triple jump gold he won at the last Olympics with a 15.39-metre jump.
Nigerian-born Christine Utorogu won the 400 metres gold for Britain in what may be the country’s most successful outing in years, even as boy wonder, Michael Phelps of the USA hauled in eight gold medals to erase Mark Spitz’s 1972 seven gold medals record in a single Olympic meet. This makes Phelps the highest overall gold medalist with 14 gold medals.
The Jamaican trio of Shelly-Ann Frazer, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart swept the medals in the Women's 100 metres, as their compatriot, 21-year-old Usain Bolt mesmerised the world by winning the 100 metres men in a grand style, breaking the world record at 9.69 seconds.
Spain's Rafael Nadal, the World’s number one lawn tennis player won the gold in the men’s event after his main rival, Switzerland's Roger Federer crashed out in the quarter-finals. The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena also crashed out in the quarter-finals of the Women's singles, but rallied to win the gold for the USA in the Women's doubles event; Russia's Elena Dementieva won the gold in the singles.
Prior to the Dream Team -IV's Saturday final game against Argentina, congratulatory messages poured in to celebrate their 4-1 thrashing of Belgium. From President Umaru Yar’Adua, Senate President, David Mark, telecommunications giant, Globacom and several others, the accolades flowed.
President Yar’Adua, through Segun Adeniyi, his Special Adviser on Communications charged the boys to go all the way and bring the gold medal home as a personal gift to him.
In his own message through his Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, the Senate President said: “Against all odds in 1996, Nigeria won the Olympic soccer competition and I am sure we can still make it this year (2008)”. Really?