Athletes Don’t Need Too Much Preparation To Win Medals – Dalung

As Nigerians still seethe with anger over the poor
preparation Team Nigeria athletes had which resulted in
their woeful outing at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in
Brazil last, Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon
Dalung may further infuriate them with his latest claim that
athletes don’t need too much preparation to excel in
competitions.
Speaking yesterday on Brila FM radio monitored in Lagos
in the wake of the sterling performance posted so far by
Team Nigeria athletes at the on-going Paralympic Games
also in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dalung said the Paralympic
athletes also had bad preparations like their able bodied
athletes but are doing better in Brazil.
According to Dalung, “the disabled athletes have shown
that all you need is a winning mentality and not too much
preparation, they train-ed under the same condition with
their able bodied counterparts but they are winning medals
now.”
However, Commonwealth champion, Odunayo Adekuruoye
also speaking on the same programme countered the
minister, saying that there is no way an athlete who
trained for a month or two could do well or think of winning
a medal as she apologised to her fans for failing them at
the Olympics.
“It is not possible to win a medal with one or two months
training. We had looked forward to good training and hoped
to do well at the Olympics. I want to apologise to
Nigerians who had looked up to me for a medal,” she said.
The publicity-seeking sports minister who had kept sealed
lips following the poor outing at the Rio Olympics jerked
back to his usual self ostensibly because of the
performance of the Paralympic athletes who have garnered
a total of nine medals consisting six gold, two silver and
one bronze.