Sportspeople From Nigeria

"I’m excited about running at the African Masters Championships. And most definitely I will love to race against Ojokolo. Perhaps when the younger ones see us perform they will want to go and replicate it as they participate actively."

"Meet Endurance Ojokolo, one+ of finest female sprinters Nigeria has produced. In 2005 she got to the 4x100m final of the World Champs & 14yrs later, she's the coach of @Dushos to his debut."

"I am so disappointed in those people who said our athletes fumbled in Durban. In the first place, people should look at the circumstances our athletes travelled to Durban. About one week to the competition, athletes from other countries were already on ground in Durban, but our athletes did not even know whether they would make the trip or not. Some of our key athletes couldn’t make the trip due to one reason or the other. Coaches were also affected. I want Nigerians to celebrate the athletes. At this stage of our preparation for Rio Olympics, what they need is encouragement. We must not do things that will make the athletes remember the hard way they made the trip to Durban."

"We have prospects for the Rio Games. We are in camp right now and we are working hard. The athletes want to go to Rio and win medals and do the nation (Nigeria) proud. We are all working together to ensure that we go to Rio to win medals and do the nation proud. The athletes want to win because they know that there is something good awaiting them and they stand the chance of making good contacts thereafter. These are the future stars of Nigeria. This kind championship was used to discover the likes of Endurance Ojokolo, Blessing Okagbare, Obinna Metuh and many other stars. It is a step in the right direction and should be sustained."

"The number one reason many female coaches are not encouraged to stick with this career is the lack of support, and what I mean by support is about the Federation having your back. There are not many female coaches. There are about 10 of us in the country that I know of right now, but we are not being encouraged and supported. We need exposure. We can only get better when we are exposed, but we are not getting that from the Federation. A lot of the time you see a team consisting of four male coaches and one female coach, or none at all; where is the gender equity? These are some of the reasons women give up on coaching, because we are not getting the right support."

"Government has done everything so; it is left for us to pay back the kind gesture. We had good training, good facilities and good coaches. If any state deserves to win this festival, it should be Rivers."

"In my first marriage, my husband wasn’t really supportive of me being a coach. But I am stubborn; coaching is what I do and what I love, and so I went for it. One of the major reasons that marriage failed was because of my career. We were together for 12 years, but there was a lot of quarrelling going on, especially when I had to travel for competitions or when I had to go to the stadium to train my athletes. I wasn’t ready to give up my career as a coach, so I formally ended the marriage in October, 2021. When you hear that a lot of women had to quit coaching because of the lack of support of their spouses, that’s actually the truth."

"I didn’t get much encouragement from home at all because they didn’t know too much about sports. My mum wasn’t that educated enough to know what sports is all about."

"I will tell the athletes to work hard and not to let sports get into their heads. They must complement their endowed talents with education. It gives them something good to hold on to after their retirement. Also as an athlete, you need to be disciplined and make up your mind on what you want. You must determine what you want to do with your life."

"They (Government of Nigeria) must catch the athletes when they are young. We started very young. They must encourage the athletes with good incentives to be able to compete."

"My mum was a strong woman but she didn’t really understand what the sport is all about. She was there for me whenever she can and whatever she could do for me, she tried her best."

"We were already at the 1976 Montreal, Olympics in Canada and waiting for the opening ceremony before we pulled out of the competition a day before it. Everybody was disappointed because of the hard work we had put in preparing for the Olympics for four years but it wasn’t the end of the world."

"The Commonwealth Games gold medal in 1974 in New Zealand in the long jump event was special. I was close to winning the gold in the hurdles too but I tripped towards it and ended up with a bronze medal."

"My love for track and field made it fun and interesting for me to go to extra length to achieve the results I got. I would have won three gold medals at the 1978 African Games but I picked up a groin injury that forced me to pull out of the 100m hurdles. At the 1973 African Games, I competed in the high jump, 100m hurdle, and long jump and I clinched the gold medals in the three events. I was thrilled to win the gold medals as it was just fun for me then."

"Education was very important to me as an athlete back then. I took it seriously right from when I was in Nigeria and even when I got to the United States and ran for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the coaches were trying to make athletics the major priority. I made them know that I came to the US for my education while athletics is secondary. I made sure I got my degrees first. I know that with the education I have something to fall back on in the case of injury or retirement from the sport."

"Running and jumping came to me naturally. It was while I took to athletics which was known as track and field then. I took part in basketball, badminton, table tennis, and a few other sports when I was growing up but it was athletics that I stuck to."

"I don’t believe that one body and the other operate the same, particularly in sports. You can’t just give two different people the same workout and expect their bodies to respond the exact same way. They may respond similarly, but there are going to be things that will differentiate between their outcomes. If you can understand the fundamentals of why their bodies respond differently, then you could also be able to contribute to those specific differences, to make that individual athlete better."

"You can’t coach someone to have passion, you can’t coach them to be dedicated, you can’t coach them to have heart and you can’t coach them to move with integrity or commitment and those are the things we are looking for."

"Although we're American, we're also Nigerian. We're actually Nigerian first. That's the one culture that we know, that we were raised to respect and understand. To show people that it's okay to be both and it's okay to represent where you're from is a powerful message that, hopefully, we've been able to translate."

"Being in an uncomfortable place isn’t bad [and] it isn’t wrong; it’s just different. Sometimes you need to be able to take that chance."

"You can sometimes stand in front of a door without knowing what’s on the other side and open it. You won’t know what’s on the other side until you open it."

"Don’t be afraid to take that risk. Impossible is nothing."

"To bring a gift for people to know that resilience is something that you can actually live to achieve, and that the fear of the unknown doesn’t need to be something that limits your ability to thrive in life...Those qualities will be important for everybody to be able to take in."

"This is beyond a dream come true. To be able to bring something back to not only the country of Nigeria – which has so gracefully given me my family, my culture and everything I stand by – but also to the continent of Africa and the world."

"Fear is really just another opportunity to learn."

"After we qualified for the Olympics, there was this uproar within Nigeria, the Nigerian diaspora, and non-Nigerian people. People were really excited that there was a winter effort and something positive happening for Nigeria."

"Everyone should be held to the same standard of fairness no matter what country they are representing and which sport they play. We all give so much of ourselves every single day and sacrifice our lives to be the best we can be naturally - no one should be able to dilute this efforts or strip them away by cheating. In any country where there is doping scandal, the system and the culture that was in place for this type of behaviour to be acceptable should be broken down and re-educated to prevent innocent-hearted athletes from being punished in the future."

"This is a real-life example of what it means to represent African excellence and a true testament to the fact that impossible is nothing. This milestone is truly a blessing."

"When you ride on faith, you’re able to live in that element of selflessness. You’re able to live in that moment of fearlessness. I don’t attribute any type of individual success to myself, but more so to God’s will to put me in places to allow things to flourish or opportunities to present themselves."

"In being selfless, you’re able to see a lot more sometimes than you really want to. Sometimes you just have to be able to tackle that fear, particularly that of the unknown. It’s always easier to just turn away and walk away from it, but if you just open up to it, you’ll really be able to see exactly what your purpose is."

"The ability to be selfless is what drives your ability to actually see clearly."

"This sport (bobsled) has the biggest learning curve that I probably have ever experienced in my life. I’ve learned a couple things along the way, but this is totally new. Take a driver who just freshly got their license —16 years old...They know what to do behind the wheel. They have an idea. But then go throw them in Daytona. It might be a little bit different type of driving. That’s how I feel. It’s just straight survival mode the entire time."

"This sport (bobsled) is celebrating 100 years this year and we are only in our 5th year. it would interest you to see what we have been able to do in 5 years. this is due to our passion, dedication and willingness to be great."

"Every single year we (Bobsled and Skeleton Federation of Nigeria) have taken a group of 68 athletes and coaches to learn and develop the sport. Our goal is to try and compete in 2026. We are developing them along the way, every single year it is getting better and better."

"It is a great feeling, having a bronze medal before and now silver, I hope they will soon award the silver medals to us. Even when we came back with the bronze in 2008, we didn’t even get a handshake or a congratulatory message but thank God today that I can now be addressed as Olympics silver medalist. That is the joy of the whole thing but it would have been better if the silver medal had been awarded right on the podium"

"Our administrators are killing the sport. We have to understand that you cannot reap from where you did not sow. I’m sorry to say this, we believe too much in fire-brigade approach. Sports is dying in Nigeria because our administrators are not doing what they are supposed to do. It was on during our time but it was better. It is that bad now."

"It's not so easy because it's just like when you are in school trying to read and pass your exams without lagging behind. Every year new people come out in athletics so I just have to train hard and see who comes out this year. I ran well in 2008 and I hope to do the same this year (2010). I know it's not going to be easy but I have to come back to it, to tell myself I can do it."

"If you leave athletics, it leaves you. I was getting lazy because this is the build up period from September to December but so far so good, everything has been so good. I have a coach in Germany by the name of Frank Duka that prepares a programme for me. We have a coach in Nigeria that we use whenever we are around too."

"I don't know how it all happened but I was very disappointed and it's coming from athletes you never expected to do drugs. I feel for them but I know one or two things would have led them to do it. Sometimes it's not the athletes' fault but I'm not encouraging drugs. If they do it and they know it, then they should face the consequences. It's just a pity; a sprinter (Gloria Kemasuode) too is affected and she's good. We are all going to miss her. I really feel bad for them because I don't think they are under pressure."

"I used to watch every competition on Skysports to see the times athletes are running and to see if the times aren't above what I can run. They ran well last year but nobody really ran fast among the Nigerian women, unlike in 2008 when I was running. That year Damola ran 11.08 seconds which was really very fast but the fastest last year was 11.16 seconds. It was good but what they were running in Europe, America and Jamaica was faster; they were giving us time to follow because Carmelita Jeter of the US ran 10.6 which was very fast. The Africans didn't do so well but at least we are following up."

"I missed being at the World Championships and my city would have loved to see me run since I'm based in Germany. They missed me too in the relay team because our team did poorly in Berlin. I'm not saying I'm the best in Nigeria but if I was there and some of us that ran in the Olympics were there, we might have made an impact."

"My Mother is Still My Driving Force."

"We must treat everybody the same way and athletes must come first too."

"That was my first big championships (1994 World Junior Championships) and the feeling was so strong. I was so proud and happy to represent Nigeria and wearing the green and white colours of the country."

"It wasn’t easy but I didn’t give up because it was fun being an athlete. If you ran very well, you could make the team and travel with the other athletes to other states. This was something I never dreamt of before. So, that gave me enough reason to keep giving my best as an athlete. I was encouraged by many people and coaches at that time too."

"I always remember where I am coming from and the fact that for me to move up in life I have to be focused and steadfast. I am not a star, I just want to be the best."

"Table tennis gave me a better life."

"Always carry yourself in high esteem. You can be who you want to be with determination, dedication and discipline. Never allow anybody to pull you down. The world is like a rollercoaster, never give up on your dream. Stay away from negative people and anything or anyone that’s telling you that you can’t make it because you’re a woman. Remember, you’re you and you’re unique."

"I am pained that our female players are not matching up with their male counterparts in terms of standard and quality. When we started some years back, we were so disciplined and determined but these days, our players are not ready to work hard and maintain discipline. This is one of my priorities for now and that is why I will like to tutor them so that they can imbibe the characteristics that aided some of us to still be playing now."

"I’ve been through racism, discrimination, violence and abuses from men. […] I’ve been through a lot in my life as a woman. I gave love but I was abandoned when I needed help – but all that I’ve been through made me better and stronger. I am a survivor!"