olympic-athletes-for-nigeria

"it has been my dream to groom young athletes and I am happy the dream is being realized. This will help raise more Chioma Ajunwas in sports"

"Sometimes, we say it is a normal thing. But it is not, because when you drink beer excessively, it becomes a problem too. If you are an athlete and you drink too much of beer, you will see eventually that the athlete will test positive. Therefore, we have to discourage it. It is not good for us. Everywhere in the world today, this has been a big problem. When you get to villages, you will think that they do not know what drugs is all about, but they are even the worst; you see youths hiding and taking it. Today, it’s seen as normal, but after they finish taking it, they go into crime. This is why it is expedient that everybody must join in disabusing the minds of the athletes and youths from taking drugs."

"When it comes to the issue of welfare packages, billions of naira will be spent on men but when it comes to females, its peanuts and that generates noise. Personally to me, I don’t like that idea because football is football no matter who plays it. If it is one global sports body (FIFA) that handles both female and male football tournaments, why give preference to men."

"I would be very happy the day a woman will become the sports minister in Nigeria. When we talk about gender, it is still everywhere, and I think that every woman should work so hard to ensure that we take positions. When we have a lot of women there, we will be able to talk about inclusion anytime the men are taking centre stage."

"The younger generation can’t claim ignorance about these matters, so it’s puzzling why athletes are still testing positive for drugs. The Athletics Federation of Nigeria should consistently educate athletes to ensure these lessons stick"

"Personally, I have set up a foundation campaigning against doping, the foundation is to educate the people and to believe in themselves. Our athletes should take their minds away from doping and cutting corners."

"Here in Nigeria, we have not imbibed the culture of getting them young because we know that the young shall grow. When we know the importance of going to the grassroots, then we’ll be able to get a lot of athletes to represent this country."

"There is no way an athlete would go and train themselves and will be able to make it in a major competition. It is not done in any part of the world. Competitions are organised and athletes are camped ahead of the various international competitions."

"I don’t know who wants to downplay my Olympics achievements. I won my gold medal at the Olympics and I know I had a series of tests right before the games while I was competing in different competitions around Atlanta. I had about five different tests at that time; they tested me after winning the gold, so if anybody wants to play down my achievements, that is their own cup of tea."

"I want to let them know that the implication of taking drugs – buying things in supermarket, buying things in the grocery shop, you know, is very, very dangerous. And if intentionally, they buy anything that they know is a banned substance, eventually they are being caught, that is the end of it.”"

"I started playing football very early in my life with my brothers. I was even a better player than them."