As the Youth Winter Olympic Games begins at Gangwon, Korea Republic this weekend, a group of Nigerian youngsters will become Africa’s first curling team to reach a Winter Youth Games but their arrival at the Games has been a journey fraught with challenges and disappointment. NationSports’ OLUWAMAYOMIKUN OREKOYA speaks with the Nigeria Curling Federation President Daniel Damola Oyedepo on the development and the future of the sport in Nigeria.
Curling is a yet another sport unknown to majority of Nigerian. As a sub-Saharan country, Nigeria hardly has any business with winter sports. But over the years, Nigeria and other countries with tropical climate conditions have made inroads at the Winter Games, which at a time was only exclusive to countries with extreme cold conditions.
Jamaica’s bobsleigh team at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Canada inspired a generation of warm climate countries to embrace winter sports games. And Nigeria was not left out. The nation made it winter debut at the Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang in 2018, having qualified female athletes in bobsleigh and skeleton events.
Now curling is set to unleash a new generation of Nigerian athletes at winter sports by becoming the first African country to be represented at the Youth Olympics curling event.
Nigeria secured Africa’s quota qualification places for the Games at the World Junior-B Curling Championships in the men’s and women’s competitions in Lohja, Finland early last year.
The team, participating at the mixed event, will be led by Roy Olach Daniel, who serves as the skip; Oku Nkoyo Jasmine as the vice-skip while Danmola Fatiu Ademola and Akinsanya Oluwatomisin Gbemisola make up the remaining team. Wale-Ogun Oluwanimifise Enioluwafe and Charles Goodnews Idongesit will represent Nigeria at the Mixed Doubles event. Alejo Fareedah Omobolanle and Babalola Daniel Damilare are also part of the team as alternate athletes.
The technical crew included Scott Hill, Sheila Daniel, Charles Nameith, Tijani Cole and Lyne Laganiere.
But the journey to South Korea has not been smooth sailing for the Federation, speaking on the Curling’s development in Nigeria since its inception in 2017, Oyedepo lamented the lack of attention from the sports ministry, adding that the federation had not received any form of support from them. He said that all the programmes embarked by the federation had been self-funded with the board, technical crew and family members of the athlete all contributing their own quota towards developing the sport in Nigeria.
He said:“The journey has been very rough for us, since we started from scratch in 2017 we have had no funding from the Nigerian government. It has been just us from the federation; we have been sponsoring all our programmes by ourselves.
“It is sad that the sports ministry is solely focused on football and hardly had any business with other sports. Football takes almost all their energies leaving other sports that can gather laurels for the country to fend for themselves.
“I would like to ask, when was the last time football won any trophy for Nigeria,” he queried.
On the federation’s intentions for the sport in 2024, Oyedepo revealed to NationSports plans to bring makeshift curling equipment to boost the sports development in Nigeria. He also hinted that the federation would continue their search for future curlers through their school programmes, adding that successful candidates would be sponsored abroad to continue their development in the sport.
“Part of our plans for the year includes importing floor curling equipment worth thousands of dollars to further develop the sport. We would also be engaging in a series of clinics across the country from there we would select young curlers whom we would sponsor aboard to train on ice and hopefully represent Nigeria in future tournaments.
“Last year alone, we visited a lot of schools across the country introducing curling as a sport to them.
“We also have series of international championships, both in the junior and seniors category, that we hope to fly the Nigerian flag later in the year.”
Oyedepo also revealed the federation’s plans of constructing an ice-training facility in Nigeria in order to cut the cost of travelling abroad for training and on completion would also be open to other African countries interest in curling.
“We are also focused on building our own ice arena which would save us money for travelling abroad all the time for proper training. The Ice Arena on completion would also be opened to other African countries who have the passion for curling.”
The Curling events at Gangwon 2024 are due to be held at the Gangneung Curling Centre, which incidentally hosted events at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Gangwon 2024 is scheduled for January 19 to February 2.
Other African that would be joining the Curling contingent at the Youth Olympics include France-born skier Issa Laborde, who chose to represent his mother’s country of Kenya while Italian based Ashley Ongonga, also representing Kenya, will become the first female cross-country skier from the continent of Africa to compete at the Winter Youth Olympics.
