Olympic Swimming: Fatai-Williams Wants Nigerians In London

President of Nigeria Swimming Federation, NSF, Babatunde Rasheed Fatai-Williams, says the federation is not bothered with the exclusion of swimming from the games, which Team Nigeria will take part in the forthcoming Olympic Games in London this July.

The National Sports Commission, NSC, through the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of Sports, Julius Ogunro, recently released nine Olympic sports and four Paralympics sports, which Nigeria will feature in with the exclusion of swimming.

The nine sports, according to the NSC are Athletics, Canoeing, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Wrestling, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing (male and female) and Weightlifting, while sports like Swimming, Judo, Karate and others were excluded from the 2012 Games.

Speaking on NSC’s decision, Fatai-Williams said Nigerian swimmers cannot be denied the right to participate in the Olympics because they have qualified for the Olympic Games.

The swimming boss rubbished the existence of any designated list of federations that will go to London Games, saying it is only a tentative list.

“Our target is to ensure that we get as many tickets as possible from the Olympic qualifiers, which will hold in Manchester, England.”

—Bamidele Olowosagba