First and foremost the way forward towards ensuring success in the next coming olympics in rio come 2016 is having government that has the zeal and committement to succeed in the area of sports and to eradicate curruption at all levels from the ministry of sports.secondly the federal government should encourage sport at all level i.e(grass roots,primary,secondary and tertiary institutions) and come up with programmes that will help in fishing out this talent.they should also implore the help of expertise from america,china,australia and jaimaica to help train our athletes because they hav the technique and are well equiped.lastly they should avoid playing politics in sports and allow the people with the real talent to emerge and proper decipline should be enforced in the athlete.they should also invite stake holders to support sports.

BeraBera: The London 2012 Olympics has come and gone. Team Nigeria returned with no medal at all, not even bronze. Many sports lovers have blamed this unwelcome development on so many factors, the emphasis being that "failure to prepare is tantamount to preparing for failure".
We have blamed enough! Now, what is the way forward? What do we have to do to have an improved performance come Rio 2016? It's just 4 years away!

*Pls constructive suggestions are welcome, NOT BLAMES plzz. Thanks.

Me thinks the only way the nigerian team can have a better performance at the olympics is if the nigerian olympic committee (If there is even such a thing) can choose people that are actually TALENTED or have very good athletic skills, and not some chairmans sister's friends cousin. I think Godfatherism played a big role in the olympic performance.

WE NEED TO STOP INVESTING IN FOOTBALL AND START IN OTHER SPORTS SIMPLE

DanNafada: We are not going to go anywhere. Slowly by slowly our corrupt and inept leaders are entrenching that atitude of "siddon look while I chop" in the general population. We have no desire and no ambition. We are lazy and we are not proud. The other day I read an article whereby the minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, was blaming our Olympic failure on everything and nothing. He was comparing us to the US, China and the UK. He was trying to point out that they invested millions and millions, da da dee, da da daaa...
The i*&t did not compare us to Jamaica or Ethiopia or South Africa-nations that have won medals with only a fraction of the wealth and resources at our disposal.

You just wait and see. If our leaders continue to ignore the twin necessities of health and education, you just wait and see. I hate Nigerian leaders with all the gut in me. I hate them for what they have done to Nigeria, I hate them for making me ashamed to be Nigerian.

Even Uganda walked away with a Gold medal

ebamma: the nigerian olympic team should visit my shrine so that i can appease the gods,because the gods are angry,the should bring three red goats,4 white lizards,5 blue crocodiles and 10 virgins which will be used for the appeasement

so, no be okija again!

London 2012 Olympics: Nigerian athletes should please stay behind to sweep the stadium. Maybe they would be lucky to find a lost medal.

lukaino: Go to a place like the Niger Delta where they are natural swimmers and train them in the sport, this will not only win us medals but actively and gainfully engage idle youths.

Natural swimmers wont get us any medals. You have to see the training that goes into these talents at very young age. The swimmers you see today have had to put in more than 10 years of hard work. Besides, we don't have the facilities. While we ought to harvest the talents at a tender age, we shouldn't forget that we need to put structures in place first. In the 80s it worked for us, what were the things we used to do that we no longer do?

swimming and gymnastics had so many medals on offer, unfortunately Nigeria was completely absent in these sports. the administrators should build swimming pools in riverine areas, recruit and station world-class expatriate coaches in those areas to discover and nuture swimmers until they become champions. the expatriates will remain until Nigeria is able to develop home grown coaches..

Do same for gymnastics


Refocus on school sports and make availability of sporting arena and sports equipment a pre-requisite for licensing private schools

the solution is to start from the root
every weed has a root, therefore, we take it out from the root.
our primary and secondary schools don't focus much on physical education anymore because the world, as a whole, has gone digital. little children nowadays do not focus on getting getting good grades or taking part in athletic activity. this problem spreads to our semi-professionals and professionals alike. the social networks and the digital times are taking a very very large toll on our athletes.
for Nigeria to go to the Olympic games and not come back with a single medal means that there are a whole lot of factors involved.
the coaches, despite the fact that they can do their job properly, are being overidden by bloody politicians saying "my candidate must go, my candidates must go", while the very athletes who can give us the medals are left behind, pushing them to seek refuge in other countries. for instance, there was ANDREW OSAGIE who ran for Great Britain and he collected a medal. we also had a lady running for the Norwegians!!! can u imagine that?
these are the athletes who can give us the medals, yet our politicians pushed them away! our coaches, because of money, don't want to be on the wrong side of the coin, so they carry out orders and don't ask questions...and that leads us to the major weed in our garden: CORRUPTION.

touch_me_hard: "Catch them young" is the answer. Schools should revamp Physical Education (P.E.) In order to identify talents. Inter-house sports competitions should be taken serious. Also, philantropists should try to sponsor talented youths to sporting competitions. I believe these would help. There may still be other suggestions though

Couldn't agree more on the PE part. The start of Phys Ed in some schools is just appalling!!!

And we need leaders who truly understand the importance Sports, some people think it is a waste of time to include it in the curriculum. . .it is only when events like the Olympics come along you see them scrambling. I see no reason why Team Nigerian should start practicing months before the even when they've had 4 years to prepare for it. It makes no sense!!!

now, for solutions...
first, soccer: we should catch potential stars when they are young, and build them up together. if they can be training together without anyone leaving that camp, i can guarantee you, we will have a dream team that can surpass the feat of Atlanta '96!!
next, swimming: look at Michael Phelps "the Whale", if u can imagine the relentless training that made him what he is today, then u'll know what i'm talking abt. that guy is impressive. what u see in him is 10-13 years of steady hard work. try that on our waterside boys and what will u get? let's sleep on that...
MORE to come...later

Man never chop belle full, you dey talk olympics. Olympics is for those with full stomach. Come back next 40 years

DanNafada: We are not going to go anywhere. Slowly by slowly our corrupt and inept leaders are entrenching that atitude of "siddon look while I chop" in the general population. We have no desire and no ambition. We are lazy and we are not proud. The other day I read an article whereby the minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, was blaming our Olympic failure on everything and nothing. He was comparing us to the US, China and the UK. He was trying to point out that they invested millions and millions, da da dee, da da daaa...
The i*&t did not compare us to Jamaica or Ethiopia or South Africa-nations that have won medals with only a fraction of the wealth and resources at our disposal.

You just wait and see. If our leaders continue to ignore the twin necessities of health and education, you just wait and see. I hate Nigerian leaders with all the gut in me. I hate them for what they have done to Nigeria, I hate them for making me ashamed to be Nigerian.

kudos !!!

This is the fundamental problem.

Go to abia state(ngwaland)where bicycle is a major means of transportation.i'm sure we can produce cycling champions.

The truth is that we've failed woefully.
The way forward?
Let's blame GEJ and stop loving our country.

U guys has said it all. I wish afam4ever was an athlethe, he would have done us proud, he has the enthusaism and desire, its like this shameful result we've got pains him the most. I'll make an extra contribution below...
1. We should get back to the grassroots and pick young talents, train and groom them for future sporting events. Olympics isnt the only sporting event. We've got the likes of All african games, common wealth games, NUGA and the new West African University Games. Gradually, our young teenage talents will mature into renown world athletes and olympiads. I still remember my days in secondary school where we used to play Hockey, volleyball, handball and basketball. Government college provided these sporting events with different pitches for them. Now, all the different pitches have been converted to football pitches, even the handball goal posts are conveniently used as football posts...

2. We can go and scout for athletes with Nigerian parentage abroad. This might sound rediculous, but out there, there are a whole lot of Nigerian born athletes abroad, who are not representing their present adopted country, maybe b'cos they're second best or stil on their grooming stage. Look at the Tigers for example. They are Nigerians mostly based in the USA. They choose to come together and represent Nigerian, and they did a good work, qualifying us for the olympics for the first time, and breaking an all time record of being the first african country to win an olympic b-ball game when they won tunissia. If Europeans and Americans 'steal' our raw talents, we can as well reach out to our 'half' brothers, entice them to represent their mother land.

Akson man: SPORTS is a game that can only be won through individual and collective efforts on the field of play.
Government sure has a role to play in sports development but cannot take full responsibility for an athlete's inability to summon up the competitive spirit to succeed in sports. Jamaica,Trinidad and[b] Kenya all have poor sporting facilities at home[/b], but their athletes make use of facilities ANYWHERE in the world.
A lot of Team Nigeria athletes are also based abroad. Government release funds on time for their preparation,yet we nothing happened.


http://mrstanleynwabia..com/2012/08/al-farouq-aminu-denies-nigeria-did-he.html

Lemmie correct that please

Many champion Kenyan athletes give back to the sport and set up training camps where they help develop up and coming athletes and share their talents.
In one town alone,there are five odd training camps belonging to various sports shoe manufacturers.
The training facilities have been approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The UK guy 'FARAH' trained alongside Kenyans, in Kenya at ITEN. He learned our endurance.
The 'Ugandan' who won marathanon for his country is a pure Kenyan from the Rift Valley.He ran for uganda though.Infact many kenyans thought he was rep. us.
The Ethiopians were not left behind.Infact some kenyans were arguing that we have opened up the facilities to foreigners only for them to beat us.
The late marathoner Samuel Wanjiru put up a Mt.Kenya Talent Development Centre which scouts for raw school talent.
Many more have pulled up resources and invested in facilities.

Several high altitude training camps in the Great Rift Valley and Central Kenya attract many international athletes, yearning to share in a little of that which builds Kenya’s runners.

Britain's Paula Radcliffe and [b]Mo Farah [/b]are some of the big names that have set camp in Iten, Kenya in preparation for major athletic meets such as the Olympics.The state of the art camp provides everything an athlete needs for training. Quality accommodation, conference facilities, a modern gymnasium, a good training ground, a library and a well managed diet are all at the disposal of the athletes.

Of course it can't beat the west but they have tried to maintain a standard so let the west come here not the other way round.

Lornah Kiplagat>>http://www.lornah.com/
Samuel Wanjiru>> http://www.mktdchampions.com/case_study.html
Kipchoge Keino>> Kipchoge Keino High Performance Training Camp
http://www.magicalkenya.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1131&Itemid=193
ITEN, KENYA'S HOME OF CHAMPIONS

Next... Its easy to blame the Ministry of sports, but i'd love to specifically blame the some parastatals under the sports ministry. We've got the Nigeria Hockey association, Nigeria basketbal assoc., Nigeria Footbal federation, Nigeria tennis assoc., volleyball, handbal etc. What i dont understand is why these associations do next to nothing, other than collect their own share of the budget. The Nig basketbal assoc partnerd with Milo to present the most prestigious basketbal competition in our secondary school. The other assoc can seek for partners to sponsor such competition among secondary schools, volleybal, Lawn tennis, etc.
Next, the state govt should equip our public schools. Public schools used to be the hub of sports, but now, private schools have taken over. Annoyingly, most private schools are mushroom private schools, with no facility, lab, hall or qualified teachers, yet they thrive profitably.
We should diversify our interest in other sports activities like gymnastics and swiming. I was amazed that the team US competed in almost 75% of the olympic games.
Just hoping we dont moan and groan in all these pains, only to forget it within the next few months, then 2 yrs later, its common wealth games, next 2 yrs, olympic again. Then we start our fire brigade approach again.

I think that there has to be an intercollegiate athletic competition at the university level so that talents identified at the secondary school level can further develop their talents at the university level. This will help us in developing talent in track and field. I believe the interhouse sports competition helps to identify talent at the secondary school level, but many of these talents end their athletic pursuits upon graduation from secondary school.

As to swimming, gymnastics, diving, and so on, we just need better facilities. Most importantly, we need a culture change, as many of our parents do not want their kids to partake in sports, especially at a very young age.

STOP BITCHING AN DO WHAT YOU CAN.SPONSOR A COMPETITION,BECOME A POLITICIAN AN CHANGE IT FROM THE LOCAL STATE OR NATIONAL LEVEL OR JUST SHOOT BOMB OR LYNCH SOME OF THE CORRUPT OFFICIALS(WORKS LIKE A CHARM).JUST STOP COMPLAINING.ITS IRRITATING

miteolu: NO WAY FORWARD

Dude!u mean hoping on hopless hope is hopeless?....I think I will agree wit u,until nxt generation..dis generation is ALL corrupt.

Please check the link below to understand that our sports ministry are to be blamed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHwC449Ni1M&feature=youtube_gdata_player

We need to send our sports administrators to countries that have achieved a feat in a particular sports. For instance, we can send them to jamaica to go and find out why the jamaicans have become a force to be reckoned with in short distance races because they've not always been this good. We neeed some people to be sent to Australia to go find out how to become a champion in swimming. We can send them to Russia to go find out why they've produced many great gymnasts.

Furthermore, we need to launch an intensive sports programme that will involve every school in country. We have to start from the schools and start grooming talents. Infact any school without sports failities or programmes should be closed down.

Jamaicans are only good in d short sprint in athletics, and d product line 4 their female sprinters is not there. Australia had a disastrous outing in d swimming competition at d Olympics. d countries we are to go to 4 assistance are d top 4 countries on d medal table.
It is even too late to start preparing 4 d games in 2016. We should lay down a good structure 4 2024. Almost all our athletes did not attend d world championships 4 their respective sports, and we expect dem to win medals.

Nigeria didn't win a medal

Av Been using Torch light and halogen finding the name of Niger on the medal table... Smh 4 dis country. Its time we head back to secondary school, so many talent wasting. Inter-house sport can be mandatory for 'em and being supervised and monitored properly. Lets go back to the root

Save your post on the clipborad cos you will need to poaste it after RIo in the next four years

The way forward is simple ,kill all the corrupt leaders starting from Jonathan downwards.Whether we like it or not ,Nigeria is headed for bloodshed and all this PDP folks will be maimed in a way that would sober hardened killers.Let us kill all these people now.i am ready to commit,i am sick and tired of Nigeria being the worst country in the world and it's laughing stock.[b][/b]

When it comes to sports, proper procedure should be followed. The athletes need to be sponsored by either government or private companies and they should have incentives to be athletes. So many athletes go about eating bread and coke for lunch in Nigeria compared to the Tyson Gays and Rylan Baileys of U.S.A..

bubadaniel13: Good sport administration,shun nepotism and favorism....operation catch them young can go a long way........

Well said!

The problem is that nepotism and fovouritism has killed the system.