Women From Nigeria

"I also believe that any music can be commercial as long as people can relate to it be it up-tempo or mid-tempo or whatever. Relatability for me is key."

"We as women need to band together as a sisterhood stemming our petty quarrels the world is for the taking and we are the takers."

"Everywhere I turned when I grew up in a New York City housing project there was despair and there was struggle and there was just so much strife, but when I got to go to basketball, I just felt like I could breathe. I felt like I was safe...I became passionate about it. I want other young girls to find their passion, regardless of their circumstances at home."

"I think any time innocent blood is being shed, whether it is on the Palestinian side or on the Israeli side, it’s heartbreaking. I don’t pick a side. I don’t think that that is appropriate. I just want the killing of innocent lives to stop."

"These girls are going to go as far as we push them. So if we keep pushing them, if we have the resources to keep pushing them, then I think that we'll be shocked and amazed at where these girls can go in the next 10-15 years. And hopefully they come back and give back to the next generation of girls after them. But we just need the community to stand behind us, push us, give us resources, whatever we need to help us give these girls what they need to be successful. That's the most important thing."

"Just as I needed the mentorship of the women in my life to become the woman I am today, our girls also need us. It is our responsibility to encourage the next generation of women to be strong, smart and bold. We cannot wait for someone else to do it. As my coach used to say, if you don’t know whose job it is, it’s yours."

"Last year (2020) I gave my absolute all to the team. I had film sessions every day, I hired a strength and conditioning coach, and we had weights three times a week. We had practice two hours on days we didn’t have games. Before and after practice, I would stay with girls and work on their skills. We had skill sessions where groups would come on certain days. We had pre-game meals. There were so many things that I was able to do last year that I want to be able to do this season, but I can’t devote that amount of time to the team. I know that if I came back, the girls would know the difference between what I gave them last year and what I’m giving this year. I gave them 100 percent last year. This year, I wouldn’t be able to do that. They deserve a coach who’s going to give them 100 percent. If I came back knowing I was only giving 75 percent, 80 percent, I would be a hypocrite. Everything that I taught them last year was: ‘What’s the point of doing it if you’re not going to give your all?’ If I come back not giving my all, that makes me a hypocrite. It’s not who I am. I want to give them 100 percent, they deserve 100 percent, and they know what my 100 percent looks like."

"We told ourselves that we were not just Nigerians but Africans and that we wanted to make the continent proud."

"For me, there was no substitute for working hard on my own, long after training."

"On our legacies because we were their role models. We did not bring the trophy home but that (qualifying for the Olympics) was a trophy for us."

"You shouldn’t be over comfortable in life, no matter where you are, just keep working, keep working."

"“I feel blessed to have been the first woman to win this award back then in 1999.""

"You can always go further if you keep working"

"My parents were not happy seeing me playing football but later when they saw that it was my talent, they started supporting me."

"I realised that you don’t have to mind what people think or do as far as you are doing what you love and what you know how to do best."

"I knew it was right - it was the right timing for me to get back out there. This is our calling - this is what we want to do. We just need the community to support us."

"As an athlete, I have learnt that it is not really good to keep changing your programme. You need to be consistent as long as you know that it is working for you."

"We need the strength test; as a jumper you need to know what your strength level is."

"I still kept my hope very high and I’m very proud of the team"

"It hurts a lot when you know that you have the capacity to do better but because certain things are not right in our preparations for the Games, one then fails to meet set target. I don’t want to sound as if I am giving excuses for my inability to make the podium. What I am saying is that we should not go to the next Games in four years time in Tokyo, Japan and also be in this same state of poor outing. I am appealing to whoever will be in-charge of Nigeria sports not allow things again turn lout like this. There should be better preparations, more encouragement for Nigerian athletes. Those other athletes (from other countries) that we competed against had everything as in everything to succeed. It just does not make sense to expect good result from Nigerian athletes who are competing with those who have been preparing in the last three years. We Nigerian athletes are just competing with tears and blood. It is through sheer personal determination to succeed that is driving Nigerian athletes. It just does not add up like that."

"I have won a couple of medals in several competitions but I yearn for an Olympic medal. It is the ultimate reward an athlete can get to show that one got to the peak of sport. And so it really hurts when one cannot get to the podium to receive an Olympic medal. Hurts real good."

"I feel really excited about winning. I've had my mind on gold ever since the very beginning. I believed I would get it and I did."

"We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. If our sports authorities want Nigerian athletes to begin to win like the rest athletes from around the world, we must begin to do things differently to get the type of results others are getting."

"The secret of my success is not far-fetched. With all honesty and modesty, I can say that determination and hard work are the keys to my success and I believe that other athletes can also achieve success if they are determined and hard working."

"I decided to become a weightlifter because of the intimidation from boys. I felt I needed to look like that so I can earn some respect from males and let them know that women can be like them too. Since I started, I have had no regrets at all as I have been able to win laurels for myself and the nation. Also, I can feed comfortable without disturbing anybody and my family is happy."

"Usman is the only one for weightlifting event in Rio; she did excellently well at the qualifiers which saw her through and she was able to secure the Olympic ticket."

"I am excited that other Nigerians have done it again and I hope that we will see more of this in future."

"We lost to Barcelona not because they are better than us; I just believe that they were better on that day."

"I am going to the qualifiers lift the sole aim of picking a ticket for the Olympics. The tournament will actually show how much impact the camping had on me because I have never gone through this kind of camping in recent time. The coaches pushed us to the limit to bring out the best in us."

"The major challenge is that some people see you as doing a job meant for men and don’t regard you the way they do to the male footballers."

"For me, it is not just about jumping unto the plane every four years to go to the Olympics. Every athlete you see here wants to step on the podium. If you can’t aim to climb up there, you have no business coming to the Olympics. I can only consider going to another Olympics if things change for the better. But if the status quo is maintained, I don’t think I will go to another Olympics again."

"Olympic gold medal doesn’t come cheap. It is painful that one has to suffer and when competition comes they expect you to win a medal with your blood. The people you have to compete with had everything they needed: training grants, competitions and are exposed to the most modern equipment. I had nothing. You don’t expect such people who have invested so much to lose to one who don’t even train adequately."

"I grew up living in the New York City housing projects with my seven siblings and my mom. I grew up in poverty so sports was something that helped me to go to college and travel the world and become a pro - things that would have never happened for someone like me."

"I told myself, ‘just go out there and express yourself.’"

"I feel 2012 was better. I had better training and my result was better. This time nothing was done to better one’s performance."

"It is painful to come to the Olympics and see people who are your contemporaries perform better than you; not because you lack the ability but because you were not prepared like them."

"I feel honoured and glad to be voted as the Weightlifter of the Year 2014 by Nigerians. It was an honour that I feel is also a challenge for me to continue to do more, and promise not to disappoint the country (Nigeria)."

"The idea was to leave a legacy behind. We prayed and worked extremely hard in training."

"Thank God for exposure at previous Olympics, continental championships and series of trials that has helped me to garner the basic points that earned me this Olympic ticket."

"I had to raise her (Usman) to 160kg because she was no stranger to that. She lifted 170kg. She went to London to win, but Usman lost focus. I don’t know what happened, but she bungled it. It was painful. I brought her up and I know her capability."

"“I always sign the work I do by myself with my name N-I-K-E and I encourage the other women to sign their work too,”"

"“You have to wear your indigo to show your people that you love them.”"

"Indigo is regarded as the color of love by the Yoruba people. “The pattern of Adire is the way we used to communicate in the past,”. You have to wear your indigo to show your people that you love them,"

"I found a way to make us women powerful, by being able to earn money."

"I think that if you want to be a doctor, you can be a doctor and be a basketballer, it doesn’t stop you. It only depends on how determined you are and how you want to achieve what you want to achieve. Sports is never a barrier, it’s a plus to what you want to become in life."

"I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better."

"By the time I was ten-years-old, I was already weaving on a proper loom and considered a professional,”"

"A vision of an Africa that shelters and respects individualism and for Africans, that the world’s opinion of us is redirected."

"My hopes and dreams as a child were simple: to be a difference- maker for good. I’ve always had empathy for the under- served and determined to do something about it through advocacy and action. Coming from a region where there’s a lot to be done, I feel that there are huge opportunities for the private sector to work alongside governments while doing well entrepreneurially."

"People's lives have changed for the better because eight families now live in decent homes with access to clean water, improved sanitation and renewable energy"