Minister of Youth and Sports Development in Nigeria, Sunday Dare has called for early and better preparations for all athletes in Nigeria to participate and represent the country in various sports events at the Tokyo Olympic Games, come next year, 2021.
The Minister said that most top athletes in most countries had already begun preparations right after their last outing of the Olympic Games.
In a Chat with Sports247, Sunday Dare urged athletes and other Nigerian representatives at the Olympics in 2021 to imitate the attitude of top athletes in other countries who commences preparation for the next Olympic Games, as soon as their last outing is completed, so as to ensure better preparations ahead of the event. He also stated that these athletes must continue to compete by going for various events before the Olympic Games, so as to keep them fit and ready for the big-time showdown.
“Tokyo 2020 actually began four (4) years ago. It is often said that when you ask one of the top athletes, ‘When would you begin preparations for the next Olympics? he said, right after the last one’. Yes, he is right, because at the individual level, If you are an athlete, you have to continue to compete, so that you can gather points with the international federation or whatever bodies you are into”.
“As an athlete, you must continue to compete, you go to Championships, tournaments at the local and continental level. The structure is a plan over the years, so you must keep yourself within those programmes. We need to have our athletes prepared for the Olympics, that’s why we organized championships, tournaments and the rest, for them to go through before the Olympics, which they have, and we know that with these, our athletes are prepared,” he stated.
The Tokyo Olympic Games was set previously to be staged this year (2020) in Japan, but due to the Covid 19 Pandemic, the event is now slated to run through from July 23rd, 2021 through to August 8th, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
