The London 2012 Olympics has come and gone. Team Nigeria returned with no medal at all, not even bronze. Many sports lovers have blamed this unwelcome development on so many factors, the emphasis being that "failure to prepare is tantamount to preparing for failure".
We have blamed enough! Now, what is the way forward? What do we have to do to have an improved performance come Rio 2016? It's just 4 years away!

*Pls constructive suggestions are welcome, NOT BLAMES plzz. Thanks.

The first thing that we need to fix is the leadership problem in the sports sector because it's obvious the people there are either corrupt or inept.

We need to send our sports administrators to countries that have achieved a feat in a particular sports. For instance, we can send them to jamaica to go and find out why the jamaicans have become a force to be reckoned with in short distance races because they've not always been this good. We neeed some people to be sent to Australia to go find out how to become a champion in swimming. We can send them to Russia to go find out why they've produced many great gymnasts.

Furthermore, we need to launch an intensive sports programme that will involve every school in country. We have to start from the schools and start grooming talents. Infact any school without sports failities or programmes should be closed down.

"Catch them young" is the answer. Schools should revamp Physical Education (P.E.) In order to identify talents. Inter-house sports competitions should be taken serious. Also, philantropists should try to sponsor talented youths to sporting competitions. I believe these would help. There may still be other suggestions though

we need to go to the grassroots to fish out raw talents who will do us proud in future. We sure have boys who can run 100m in 12-13 seconds and we can take it from there.
Next we need seasoned sports men to man the sports ministry not one Alhaji or banker, our trainers need refresher courses.the list is endless, but my fear is that we will repeat the same silly mistakes. We never seem to learn from our past.

Go to a place like the Niger Delta where they are natural swimmers and train them in the sport, this will not only win us medals but actively and gainfully engage idle youths.

Patriotism is what we need first,our sport administrators should have a long term plan of sports development to pick people with talents and train them while they are still young.Cooperate bodies should help govt to sponsor our athletes and other sporting activities,competitions should be organized in schools,streets and communities to scout for talents.These will go a long in helping us to win more medals in the nearest future....

shun corruption, and put a round peg in a round hole. chikena

Good sport administration,shun nepotism and favorism....operation catch them young can go a long way........

the nigerian olympic team should visit my shrine so that i can appease the gods,because the gods are angry,the should bring three red goats,4 white lizards,5 blue crocodiles and 10 virgins which will be used for the appeasement

Charity begins at home . When things start working it Nigeria , am quite positive we would then begin to excel in other fields which would take us outside the shores of Nigeria .

The only way forward is to go back to the drawing board and burn it...

Chanchit: The only way forward is to go back to the drawing board and burn it...

That drawing board should be destroyed and a new one acquired.

Clear demarquation between sports and politics will help a lot.

every 4 years right after the Olympics Nigerians get together on radio, on TV, on Forums(such as this) to express their anger, dissapointment and frustrations about another poor performance form their spectators athletes. the write about it on papers and offer suggestions on how to get it right by the next Olympics. One year later, they've 4gotten. Its business as usual they wont remember the disappointment, the suggestions, and promises made by an unserious sports ministry to get it right till 2 weeks before the next Olympics where we will start predicting another miserable outing, watch the athletes screw up then back to discussions all over again.

They have to start preparing on time.

We were just not good enough. I don't buy all this preparation (or the lack thereof) argument. What of Chukwumerije who had tremendous resources to prepare (courtesy of his Senator dad), and who was our brightest medal prospect? ? ? He fumbled! We just overrated ourselves jare. Let's dig deeper to find where we truly have medal prospects, and consolidate on those. Even if we field athletes that prepare for 20 years and they are not good enough, there would be no medals to show for their efforts.

pro01: We were just not good enough. I don't buy all this preparation (or the lack thereof) argument. What of Chukwumerije who had tremendous resources to prepare (courtesy of his Senator dad), and who was our brightest medal prospect? ? ? He fumbled! We just overrated ourselves jare. Let's dig deeper to find where we truly have medal prospects, and consolidate on those. Even if we field athletes that prepare for 20 years and they are not good enough, there would be no medals to show for their efforts.

Chukwumerije is not overrated because he won a bronze medal at the last olynpics. His opponent in London beat him by one point in the last round. It could have gone to anyone. His own case is that of luck and not because he did not prepare or that he did not have the resources at his disposal.

I want to enter for cycling in Rio Olympics. Who can direct me on how to go about it? Please?

SimonAndal: I want to enter for cycling in Rio Olympics. Who can direct me on how to go about it? Please?

Go and get yourself a bicycle and start riding away.

Government should tackle bribery and corruption in the sport industry,this should serve as a bedrock.Fetching of raw talent by organising sport games in primary,secondary and tertiary institutions.Facilities most be well put in place,orientation and exposure of uptodate analysis about sport must be encouraged cos Nigeria s approach on many sports are outdated.Private sector also plays a vital role in sport development,healthy and unique competition should be encouraged with annual sporting events among states and sport clubs.


GOD BLESS NIGERIA

No way forward...It's a case of no solution! Frankly speaking, the problems are too many to be fixed before 2016. Maybe we can start preparing for 2020.
FMJ!

It is a shame that the present government have no interest in sport.

For as long as these crooks remain in power I bet there is no way farward.

Putting more money or changing of ministers is never a way farward,it can only attract more people to get their share of national cake.

Patience is what we need till this dark cloud of executive is over then we can start over again.

We should focus on the sport we are good @, like handling guns or shooting (militants/boko), swimming (Arugungu fishn festival) what else? and so on...

we should go on sabatical for 8 years (2 consecutive olympic periods) and use taht time frame to rebuild and restock our talents. This will include football and all other sports. When we get back to the world arena, we will be able to take the world by storm, assuming in those 8 years we prioritized well and gave the best hands an opportunity to run the sports affairs and bring in teh best people with a zeal to do the nation proud and fix their names in teh anals of Nigerian history

Oh my Gosh,
I had tears on my eyes watching a certain country celebrating their 19 year old gold medallist on the television. You need to see all the things being given to this young boy, scholarships, million dollars, lands, places named after him, fantastic homes. They are very proud of him, a country that knows to honour people that brought them honour. A former gold medallist had a stadium named after him. I'm very happy for them.

The way forward for our country??
These countries that carted away all the medals invest good resources in training, we should be serious with our training. Make some noise for our representatives Clap, Clap, Clap! who still ventured, they made some effort in the first place so Congrats to them however dismal they performed.

I dont think there was anything wrong with our representatives. At least, they took the initiative, learnt a sport, got good at it and qualified for the olympics. Most nigerians just sit on their behind and complain. India have four times our population and they could only muster 2 bronzes. We'll definitely fare better in Rio....

ScorchedViper: I dont think there was anything wrong with our representatives. At least, they took the initiative, learnt a sport, got good at it and qualified for the olympics. Most nigerians just sit on their behind and complain. India have four times our population and they could only muster 2 bronzes. We'll definitely fare better in Rio....

Stop comparing us with India. They're not a sporting nation like Nigeria except for cricket that they're known for. So, you see nothing wrong with a nation that has previously won medals in previous olympics not even winning one bronze medal? It's because of people like you that Nigeria is this situation because you live in delusion.

Solemn tee: shun corruption, and put a round peg in a round hole. chikena

sikena

We are not going to go anywhere. Slowly by slowly our corrupt and inept leaders are entrenching that atitude of "siddon look while I chop" in the general population. We have no desire and no ambition. We are lazy and we are not proud. The other day I read an article whereby the minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, was blaming our Olympic failure on everything and nothing. He was comparing us to the US, China and the UK. He was trying to point out that they invested millions and millions, da da dee, da da daaa...
The i*&t did not compare us to Jamaica or Ethiopia or South Africa-nations that have won medals with only a fraction of the wealth and resources at our disposal.

You just wait and see. If our leaders continue to ignore the twin necessities of health and education, you just wait and see. I hate Nigerian leaders with all the gut in me. I hate them for what they have done to Nigeria, I hate them for making me ashamed to be Nigerian.

Personally, I think there is very little that can be done. The performance probably reflects the mood of the nation right now.
Let's get the political stuff sorted first. With all the stuff going down right now, medals are the least of our worries.