It is painful to come to the Olympics and see people who are your contemporaries perform better than you; not because you lack the ability but becaus… - Mariam Usman

The preparation is nothing to talk about; but I am not discouraged, rather I’m taking it up as a challenge to increase the tempo of my training outside the national camp. We have been in camp for the past two months training seriously, this will enable me to win a medal this time around and I know that almighty God will support my effort. I was in Beijing and London Olympics in 2008 and 2012 respectively, but couldn’t win any medal. However, this is another opportunity for me and I must make the difference this time.

Olympic gold medal doesn’t come cheap. It is painful that one has to suffer and when competition comes they expect you to win a medal with your blood. The people you have to compete with had everything they needed: training grants, competitions and are exposed to the most modern equipment. I had nothing. You don’t expect such people who have invested so much to lose to one who don’t even train adequately.

We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. If our sports authorities want Nigerian athletes to begin to win like the rest athletes from around the world, we must begin to do things differently to get the type of results others are getting.