Olympics
Waldum warns Nigeria over Olympic preparation
Super Falcons boss Randy Waldrum has warned his side must prepare professionally to be able to challenge for a medal at the 2024 Olympic Games women’s football tournament.
The Super Falcons and Zambia booked their places in Paris as African qualifying culminated on Tuesday.
Nigeria, ranked 36th in the world, will return to the Olympics for the first time since 2008.
“Now my plea and challenge is to the Minister of Sport and to the federation – to help us prepare properly,” Waldrum said.
The West Africans qualified after securing a goalless draw away against South Africa in Pretoria, progressing 1-0 on aggregate thanks to Rasheedat Ajibade’s winner in the first leg.
The Super Falcons will face World Cup holders Spain, former world champions Japan and Brazil in Group C in Paris.
“We need a camp in Europe to prepare for the group that we have – we need proper training, we need proper transportation,” Waldrum, 67, added.
“We need to do things right because these women deserve this opportunity to represent our country of Nigeria in the best possible way.”
Eleven-time continental champions Nigeria will be making their fourth appearance at the Olympics, with their best previous result a quarter-final exit in Athens in 2004.
The Super Falcons reached the last 16 at the Women’s World Cup last year, losing to eventual runners-up England on penalties.
“With this field being small in the Olympics, every team is a top team,” American Waldrum added.
“And if you look at our group, again – like the World Cup – it’s the group of death, so to speak.
“Sixteen years without qualifying is a long time and I am extremely proud of the girls. There is work to be done when it comes to our attack, and we will improve before heading to France.”
Meanwhile, Zambia overturned a first-leg deficit in Morocco to secure back-to-back qualifications for the Olympics.
Trailing 2-1 on aggregate, captain Barbra Banda levelled the tie in the 38th minute to send the match at the Moulay Hassan Stadium in Rabat to extra time.
And the Orlando Pride striker netted the winner from the penalty spot in the 105th minute to give the Copper Queens a 3-2 win overall.
The Zambians, ranked 65th in the world, will be in a tough Group B in Paris along with four-time Olympic champions the United States, 2016 winners Germany and World Cup semi-finalists Australia.
Zambia suffered a group-stage exit at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, although Banda became the first woman to score successive hat-tricks at a single Olympics.
The women’s football tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games begins on 25 July, a day before the opening ceremony in Paris, with the final on 10 August.
-BBC
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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