With less than 68 days to the start of the Winter Youth Olympic Games in the Republic of Korea, the Nigeria Curling Federation is still battling to secure the funding it needs to prepare the team for the games.
The fourth edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games is billed to hold in Gangwon, Republic of Korea from 19 January to 1 February 2024, with athletes competing for honours in 15 sports.
The President of the Nigeria Curling Federation, Danmola Daniel revealed on Friday that the federation has been in search of funds to organise a camping exercise for the Nigerian team ahead of the competition but with no success.
He described the situation as disheartening while calling on the relevant authorities to urgently come to the aid of the team meant to represent Nigeria and by extension Africa at next year’s Winter Youth Olympics.
“We have done all we could trying to solicit for funds in and around the country and we couldn’t”, Daniel said.
“This is an amazing thing because we are not just talking about anyhow youth games, it is the Youth Winter Olympics. If it is football I’m sure money would come from every angle for that. An event such as the youth Winter Olympics should be encouraged because these kids were picked from every part of the country not that they had experience before or that people from the diaspora have come to play”.
The Nigerian team qualified for the Youth Winter Olympics last December but they need to train and compete in Finland and South Korea before the games begin in January.
“They qualified since last year December and this is the winter season from September to March and this is the time they should train”, Daniel added.
“Now we only have 60 days to go and in this 60-day window we only have one month which is December for them to be properly trained and camped for them to be able to fly to South Korea and compete yet there is no
help”.
