Nigerians have been crying over the country's disappointment at the Olympics but hardly has anyone tried to consider what successful countries are doing in long term continuous investment to guarantee such stellar performance. While there may be publications of such by other countries, I have only laid my hands on that by the US and I present it here for you consideration. This is mostly money spent by the sports association of each sport. As a simple reference, the US Olympics team spent $232 M in 2008 for Beijing 2008 for 110 medals which translates to approximately N 35 B or N 320 M per medal. Note this does not include continuous investment in their sports at recreational, hobby, local etc where anyone can just go to a standard basketball or tennis court to play all day or night with his friends. How much has Nigerian governments invested in its people for the people to expect medals? The billions stolen by Nigerian leaders and defended by their tribesmen on NLand is what should have been spent on Nigerian athletes. We have the people but no matter how gifted an amateur (Nigerian) is, he will never compete with professionals who are also gifted (assuming to a slightly or more extent) but 4+ years of professional top class preparation and exposure since 5 years old to good facilities, food, competition, etc!

Team USA will pay a hefty price for its share of the gold, silver and bronze at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, but even the medals table has a bargain bin.

The U.S. Olympic Committee shelled out more than $232 million in 2008 to help American athletes win 110 medals in Beijing -- the site of the previous Summer Olympic Games. That's $2.1 million per medal, but doesn't include the cash kicked in by each sport's governing body from sponsors, donors and special events. For example, USA Basketball took a little less than $1 million from the USOC to send the men's and women's teams to China four years ago, but spent $5.8 million overall on gold-medal efforts from LeBron James, Diana Taurasi and company.

That's a lofty $2.9 million per medal, which is nearly five times what the U.S. modern pentathlon and badminton programs spent on their Olympic programs combined in 2008. The birdie smashers and five-sporters left empty handed, but any medal those programs took home would have been the steal of the games.

Complete story...: http://www.investinganswers.com/investment-ideas/commodities-precious-metals/you-wont-believe-what-america-spends-win-olympic-gold-t

3. USA Swimming
2008 Olympic medal tally: 12 gold, 9 silver, 10 bronze
2008 spending, based on audit: $21.4 million
Spending per medal: $690,322.58

It helps to have a mer-man like Michael Phelps win eight gold medals, but the U.S. team is stacked with talent to make even that high buy-in price seem like a bargain.

2. USA Shooting
2008 Olympic medal tally: 2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze
2008 spending, based on audit: $4.13 million
Spending per medal: $688,333

Not only did those medals come relatively cheap, but the two gold medals were won by guys shooting skeet and trap. Consider all those childhood hours playing Nintendo's Duck Hunt as early Olympic training.

1. USA Track and Field
2008 Olympic medal tally: 8 gold, 9 silver, 7 bronze
2008 spending, based on organization's financial statement: $15.63 million
Spending per medal: $651,250

...


2. USA Tennis
2008 Olympic medal tally: 1 gold, 1 bronze
2008 spending, based on tax documents: $46.23 million
Spending per medal: $23.12 million

That $23.11 million also covered the US Open, Davis Cup and other events in 2008, but the United States Tennis Association lumps it in with Olympic spending and chalks it all up to athletic development. That makes the Williams sisters' gold medal in women's doubles and the Bryan brothers' bronze medal on the men's side the second costliest pieces of hardware the U.S. took through customs from Beijing.

1. USA Soccer
2008 Olympic medal tally: 1 gold
2008 spending, based on tax documents: $44.1 million
Spending per medal: $44.1 million

Source: http://www.investinganswers.com/investment-ideas/commodities-precious-metals/you-wont-believe-what-america-spends-win-olympic-gold-t

Thats on the high side in my opinion, but they can afford anyway.
Investing such an amount of money in Nigerian sports will be a collosal waste

J12: Thats on the high side in my opinion, but they can afford anyway.
Investing such an amount of money in Nigerian sports will be a collosal waste

^^very true!
They can afford it,but we can't,and we shouldn't.

solomon111: ^^very true!
They can afford it,but we can't,and we shouldn't.

But, you can invest a fraction of that amount and still do well. You expect people that swallowed garri in warm water before heading to training to do well against their counterparts whom everything from their diet to attire is monitored by experts, then you must be dreaming.

Patience Jonasatan don thief $13.5million fininsh? Or has her husband finished scamming you guys through Oil subsidy? Abeg make una go relax somewhere jo.

solomon111: ^^very true!
They can afford it,but we can't,and we shouldn't.

That article does not tell you the whole story. For instance, look at the information you are given here of how the money invested by Britain to prepare it's athletes is really spent.

"When Great Britain went to Beijing, the team benefited from £235m investment in training programmes in the years running up to the Olympics - that's a fourfold increase on what was spent [in the run up to Athens]," says Prof David Forrest, a sports economist at the University of Salford.

"We spent an extra £165m and got 17 more medals, so that's about £10m a medal."

'Big impact'
This massive increase in investment in elite sports was funded in large part by the National Lottery.

"Lottery funding in the 90s has a lot to do with [Great Britain's recent success]," says Stefan Szymanski, professor of sports management at the University of Michigan.

"That devotion of financial resources, particularly on building up elite teams, has had a big effect on Britain."


More successful sports such as cycling receive greater funding, making them even more successful
In fact, the Lottery accounts for about 60% of funding for GB's Olympic teams' preparation for the London Games. Almost 40% comes directly from the UK exchequer - in other words, directly from our pockets via taxes.

This equates to about 80p a year per UK taxpayer. About £7m also comes from money raised by Team 2012, mainly through corporate sponsors.

Note how the above not only explains that the investment is not just in one way but the years leading up to the Olympics, and also the source of the money. If you read the above, you see it makes sense for Nigeria to equally invest in it's sports, rather than concluding it is too expensive.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19144983

Oga poster, sorry to burst ur bubble but ur arguement is senseless. Nigeria has spent more money than countries like Grenada, kenya, ethiopia, belarus, bahamas, botswana, etc and all these countries I mentioned have won medals so wat r u sayin?? Abeg go siddon and stop lookin for xcuses

yoji: Oga poster, sorry to burst ur bubble but ur arguement is senseless. Nigeria has spent more money than countries like Grenada, kenya, ethiopia, belarus, bahamas, botswana, etc and all these countries I mentioned have won medals so wat r u sayin?? Abeg go siddon and stop lookin for xcuses

Really? You must be a kid who doesn't understand the impact year-over-year corruption, neglect, lack of patriotism and cohesive national focus on things like an international competition like the Olympics. So, can you explain how Nigeria has gone from the powerhouse of sports (in Africa) in the 90s and progressively becoming irrelevant while growing to a population of 170 M? What is the population of those countries (probabilistically, higher population implies more athletes), level of corruption, cohesive national plan or drive for anything really including sports, etc? Or you mean it is just by chance that Nigeria although has grown in population, but cannot now win even a single medal again? Okay, why not provide your data and sources on funding and preparation for the Olympics??

yoji: Oga poster, sorry to burst ur bubble but ur arguement is senseless. Nigeria has spent more money than countries like Grenada, kenya, ethiopia, belarus, bahamas, botswana, etc and all these countries I mentioned have won medals so wat r u sayin?? Abeg go siddon and stop lookin for xcuses

You know terrain and altitude are factors too?
Ethiopians for example live in high altitudes so they have an advantage in long distance.

We spent money too. And we won nothing.

yoji: Oga poster, sorry to burst ur bubble but ur arguement is senseless. Nigeria has spent more money than countries like Grenada, kenya, ethiopia, belarus, bahamas, botswana, etc and all these countries I mentioned have won medals so wat r u sayin?? Abeg go siddon and stop lookin for xcuses

Please how did u know that Nigeria spent more money than the mentioned countries..how much are the nigerian athletes paid and how much are the others paid,which facilities does Nigeria have and which does kenya &co have..who are the nigerian coaches and who are the Ethiopian coaches...or Do u just assume that because Nigeria is richer than these countries that means we SPENT more.please remember spending is different from budgeting.that an amount was budgeted for the ministry of sports from 2010-2012 budget doesnt mean it was actually spent on sports development or training for olympics..lets not forget our much will be spent on overbloated contracts that will never be executed and the amount that officials of the different sports agencies will steal

...But forget the winning of medals as a reason for investing in sports. The real reason should be for health and well being of the society. Michelle Obama went as head of the US delegation to the Olympics in furtherance of her 'let's move' project. They know they need a healthy population to be productive so they invest in facilities to encourage it.

yeah the US spend that much to achieve what they had. then what about countries like jamaica, kyzakstan and 6-figure populations like bermuda that won a medal atleast.

pls! pls!! lets not just try to rationalize failure, instead fashion a way out of this horrendous outing.