Olympics: Dare backs Nigeria to beat Atlanta ’96 feat, promises vaccines for athletes

SPORTS minister Sunday Dare has promised that Team Nigeria will excel at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as his ministry has done enough to motivate the athletes.

In an interview with CNN’s Zain Asher, Dare said: “I want to assure you that the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is going to be different because we have seen through our public private partnership that our athletes have been adopted and supported financially and their welfare has been taken care of.

“That is how we have excellent performances. We want to surpass the feat of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in Tokyo.”

Nigeria won two gold medals at the Atlanta Olympics through the men’s football team and Chioma Ajunwa in women’s long jump.

However, the country has not come close to matching that feat ever since.

On the safety of the athletes due to the spike in Covid-19 cases in the Games’ host country Japan, Dare assured that Team Nigeria will be safe and will be vaccinated.

“There is a Nigerian Olympics Committee just like every country has an Olympics Committee,” he said.

“This ministry and the government have been working closely with the IOC, NOC and the Japanese government through the Japanese Ambassador. We do know that there is an IOC guideline and book on Covid-19 and we are keyed into that to ensure the safety of our athletes.

“Most importantly, we are looking at the vaccination of our athletes. We are also looking at the 14-day guideline to get the Covid -19 test before Tokyo opens for the Olympics.

“All Olympics-bound athlete have taken their first shot of the vaccine.

Though the IOC has said vacination is an option, we will make sure all our athletes take the two shots. We have received massive support from the presidential task force on Covid-19.”