Women In Sports

"Racism has returned to football fully and some countries are using that opportunity to abuse players. I will advise players to ignore any form of racist comments because I don’t see racism stopping soon."

"We have female footballers that are married and are good wives. The likes of Florence Omagbemi, Nkechi Egbe are married and are good wives to their husbands. It depends on what you want, not when you marry the wrong person. Just like every other person in marriage, when you don’t get your own person, it will give you a problem, both of you will not flow very well. But when you marry the person that you love and want to stay with, everything will work well."

"The players will function well if they have a female coach because she will be like a mother to them."

"Everything is about time, we should look before we leap and not run faster than our shadow."

"You can do it if you believe you can."

"Focus and determination , winning the WAFU Cup made learnt more lessons of motivation to strive ahead with confidence for the World Cup ahead."

"If you are doing well and you are still calm, people reckon more with you than when your head is not down, they won’t give a damn about you even if you are doing well."

"If you really want to get what you want, you have to pump money into it."

"Make and break the records girl. The world at your feet."

"It’s time to show the world how determined,talented and unstoppable you are.Go all out and give all your best."

"In football, you either win, lose or draw, so they have tried their best."

"I wanted to run faster, but in the end, I am happy with my timing. It is a good course with good weather conditions which made it easier for me."

"Famous seem great when we are on our knees. So let us rise!"

"It is a must for you to have challenges when you embark on a sporting journey."

"There is Olabisi Afolabi, the famed NUGA alumnus from Ilorin, who helped Nigeria to a silver medal in the 4 x 400 meters at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the highlight of a very successful athletic career, which included gold at the World Junior Championships in 1994, silver at the 1999 All-Africa Games, and bronze at the 1995 All-Africa Games."

"Am happy about the whole event as my family and friends are excited too. I am very thankful to God and Mrs Ulaeto, my English teacher who discovered me. She was the one who handed me to coach Effiong Ibok who in inturn left me under the professional training of coach Daniel Umoette. I also appreciate Mrs Janet Bassey, secretary of track and field in Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Youths and Sports. I thank all my teammates too as well as everyone that encouraged me."

"It was very tough because of the weather. This is just the beginning of great things in my career. My coach and I really worked hard on this. I’m so excited; it would only get better. Coming here to make so much impact makes me feel so happy. It means more hard work, but the future is so bright."

"I am happy that things are working out well and I thank God for the progress made so far. I come from a riverine area in Ibeno local government area where I used to help my parents to catch crayfish. I am equally grateful to my parents and my coaches who are keeping me on my toes. I look forward to having a successful career in athletics."

"I think that was 2016 during inter-house sports, she was in Yellow House. I just looked at her and said can this one do anything? But she surprised everybody, I gave her the name ‘Kenya’ when I saw her sprinting legs. I told her you are going places."

"Imaobong you have done well, the governor is proud of you, the whole state is proud of you and we are happy that you have not disappointed us. As you are leaving for the United States, please do not lose focus, trust God, work harder and do the best you can at all times."

"You know in 4×400 meters, you have to work as a team and this was what we did on the track. We had one spirit, one mind and as a result of determination we clinched the gold medal. The next target for the team is numerous. In Africa, Nigeria is number one in 4x400m and we are grateful to God for making us return the gold medal to Nigeria ones more. Back in 2016, the South African female team defeated us in Durban and right now the gold medal has returned to its rightful owners."

"I am so happy to win because four years ago I won a bronze medal but this time around, I am the African champion. This season has been a great one for me as I became national champion, won a bronze at the IAAF World Relays and silver at the Commonwealth Games. I am going to train harder ahead of the Continental Cup."

"Abugan's 'A' sample was found to demonstrate findings consistent with an exogenous origin of endogenous steroids… and indicate an application of testosterone prohormone. She wrote to the CGF waiving her rights to have her 'B' sample analyzed. She also admitted liability."

"I am fine now and doing much better. I have started my training. I was formerly in South Africa, but presently I am in Akure, Ondo State. But I hope to be in Lagos next week. By October I will be back to start afresh."

"The Federation Court has determined that Ms Abugan had committed an anti-doping rule violation. Consequently, she has been disqualified from all events she participated in during the Games, with the results nullified. This includes her silver medal in the women's 400m. As she was also a member of her country's second placed 4 x 400m relay team, that result is also nullified."

"I feel so elated, how I wish I could see her with my eyes now, oh how I will hug her. I told her to trust God for everything, and God is with her. Am so elated."

"The duo of Imaobong Nse Uko (400m) and Udodi Onwuzurike (200m) won individual gold medals while the 4x400m mixed and the women’s relay teams also won our first ever relay gold medals at the Championships."

"Folashade Abugan returned an adverse analytical finding from a test conducted on October 8, 2010, after competing in the women's 400 meter final."

"I started coaching her (Imaobong) in 2017. That was before the National Sports Festival in Abuja. As a matter of fact, she was discovered during the Akwa Ibom Youth Games and I have been coaching her since then. I must appreciate her parents who were gracious enough to release her to us. We were almost strangers then but they allowed her to live with the secretary of Akwa Ibom sports commission who also acted as her godmother. Training her was not easy because she was going to school. While I coached others in the day, I coached her in the evening whenever she returned from school."

"Ms Abugan wrote to the CGF waiving her rights to have her "B" sample analyzed and a hearing, as provided for within the CGF Anti-Doping Standard (ADS). She also admitted liability."

"In a situation where everyone trains differently, it doesn’t help in the relay. Another important thing is equipment; if we have standard equipments, we’ll improve in our performance. All what the country (Nigeria) needs to do for us as a team is for them to give us the financial support, make us train together because when you train alongside your team, definitely the spirit of togetherness is present."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 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 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."

"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."

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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 preparation is nothing to talk about; but I am not discouraged, rather I’m taking it up as a challenge to increase the tempo of my training outside the national camp. We have been in camp for the past two months training seriously, this will enable me to win a medal this time around and I know that almighty God will support my effort. I was in Beijing and London Olympics in 2008 and 2012 respectively, but couldn’t win any medal. However, this is another opportunity for me and I must make the difference this time."

"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."