Ebola: Nigeria pulls out of youth Olympics

The ebola disease yesterday took its tool on Nigerian sports, as the National Sports Commission (NSC) announced the pulling out of the country’s contingent from the Youth Olympics billed to kick off this weekend in Nanjing, China.

Director General of NSC, Gbenga Elegbeleye who announced the nation’s pull out noted that Nigerian athletes, who were already in China perfecting strategies for the game’s kick off were being treated like lepers by the organizers of the championship.
According to the NSC boss, Nigerian athletes were not only quarantined by the organisers, but barred from training ahead of the competition.
“Nigerian athletes were quarantined, isolated and barred from training alongside athletes from other countries since they arrived the competition venue over news of Ebola virus in Nigeria. Following this discrimination, we have resolved to pull out from the games,” Elegbeleye stated.
Nigeria was billed to feature in three sports- wrestling, beach volleyball and athletics. Nigerian athletes qualified to fly Africa’s flag in these events from the African youth games held early this year in Botswana.
It would be noted that while the athletes got their visas to travel, the Chinese embassy as at Tuesday was yet to give most of the Nigerian officials visa, no thanks to the Ebola virus fear.