Olympic Times - Sports Daily

The national athletes competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games without any insurance policy in accordance with the global practice in sports, it has been revealed.
Our correspondent, who covered the games, learnt that the National Sports Commission failed to insure the athletes against accidents and other emergency situations that might arise at the games.
It was learnt that a budget of N5.5 million was presented to the NSC for endorsement before the games but the paper was not signed.
The special sports athletes traveling to Beijing for the Paralympics scheduled to take place between September 6 and 17 will also suffer the same fate, our correspondent also learnt.
“The practice all over the world is to insure every athlete and official before competitions so that they will be motivated to give the country their best at such events.
“We have to thank God that we did not have any serious case of injury at the games,” our source revealed.
The athletes that represented the country at the Algiers 2007 All Africa Games were fully insured by the Team Nigeria Trust Fund led by Suleiman Ali.
Our correspondent also learnt that some of the athletes, who represented the country at the Beijing Games were aware of the development and this might have affected their performances.
Nigeria finished with one silver and three bronze medals to place 61 out of the 89 countries that made it to the medals table in Beijing.
A total of 205 countries took part in the games.

from: punchng.com