10 Nigerian athletes were banned from the Olympics because the people responsible for testing athletes in Nigeria did not do that.
Frustrated Nigerian athletes are protesting at the Olympics in Japan
While Track & Field stars are already competing for medals at the ongoing Olympic Games in Tokyo, 10 Nigerian athletes are protesting after they were banned from the Games.
The Track and Field events of the Olympics kicked off without 10 Nigerian athletes because of non-compliance with the Out of Competition Testing (OCT) requirement.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), a unit of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) that was founded in April 2017 to combat doping in the sport of athletics, released a statement on Wednesday, July 28 to announce that these athletes were not eligible to compete because the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 of the Anti-Doping Rules were not met by ‘Category A’ Federations.
In simple terms, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), the body that governs athletics in Nigeria, which falls under the ‘Category A’ federations, did not conduct enough urine and blood tests for these athletes.
The affected athletes have expressed frustration at seeing their dreams of competing at the Olympics dashed by negligence from the Ministry of Sports and the AFN.
They staged a protest in Tokyo with banners calling out the Ministry of Sports and AFN for negligence that led to their disqualification.
“Why should we suffer because of someone else’s negligence,” a banner held by one of the athletes read.
“All we wanted to do is to compete,” another banner read.
The athletes protested with cardboard papers that had their complains against the AFN written on them
Following the disqualification, the president of the AFN, Tonok Okowa, in a statement, said that the non-testing affected athletes who are residents in America.
Okowa said that the athletes were tested in the American collegiate system, but the tests were deemed not to have complied with the required standard.
The Ministry of Sports, in their statement, also said the same thing about the test that the affected athletes conducted in the United States.
