by Tolu Omoyeni

The curtains have been drawn on Rio 2016 today and it’s been a roller-coaster two weeks of victory, losses, tears, boos, cheers, emotions and unending drama. The latter especially for the underachieving Team Nigeria. Beginning with our flagrant and humiliating appearance at the opening ceremony, we did not need a stargazer to predict that the games were an impending disaster for Team Nigeria. This post is supposed to be a list of winners and losers but seeing as our only win was a bronze medal in football, a list will not be necessary.

WINNER(S)

Our football Dream Team led brazenly by Captain John Mikel Obi did us proud in a third place match against Honduras and won 3-2 to clinch the bronze medal. The team had a commendable start, considering the delay they faced in Atlanta and arriving Rio few hours before their first game against Japan, which they surprisingly won.

LOSERS

The rest of the team, essentially! A large number of them made efforts that should be applauded, made first time appearances in games that are so not Nigerian and did considerably well. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, we fielded an Olympian in rowing. Chierika Ukogu made it to the finals in the Women’s Singles Skull rowing event and finished 20th place.

The Nigerian basketball team, D’Tigers had a fairly good outing at the Olympics this year. They lost all games expect one where they beat Croatia 90-76. Let’s not forget that every young man on that team is based on the US. Big loss for Nigeria.

Social media star and sprinter , Divine Oduduru made it to the semis and had his moment of RioFame when he came 2nd place behind world champion, Usain Bolt in the 200m heat race. He lost out at the semi final race but Divine got a hug and a handshake from Bolt. He never experredit!

Nigeria’s fastest, Seye Ogunlewe did not live up to his moniker at Rio. He dropped out at the early stages when he finished 4th in the 100m male heat race.

She won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing but this year, Blessing Okagbare barely made it to the semi-finals in 200m women’s race. Okagbare and her team crashed out in the finals of the 4*100 relay race.

The trio of Segun Toriola, Quadri Aruna and Bode Abiodun were knocked out by China in a 3-0 win in Table Tennis.

Nigeria’s boxing Olympian, Efe Ajagba had an impressive start but didn’t make it pass the quarter-final stage after he was beaten by his Kazakhstan opponent, Ivan Dychko.

Female swimmer, Rachel Tonjor finished 3rd in the first heat race but crashed out in the 100m breaststroke competition.

The biggest Nigerian loser at the Rio 2016 Olympics is no other than sports minister, Solomon Dalung. He was present at Rio purely for personal entertainment and returned with no medal. He sent out a tweet congratulating Team Nigeria and reminding us that this year’s Olympics performance was a step ahead of London 2012. A shabby consolation from a man who heads a ministry that failed its athletes woefully.

Team Nigeria’s Olympic kits arrived Rio 13 days into the event and just in time for the closing ceremony. Epic fail!

There’s no denying that the Nigerian government failed its own again this year. Even as we celebrate the bronze medal, our position at the bottom of the medals table for African nations reeks of shame.