A fast-rising Nigerian female para-athlete, Ogochukwu Ogili has admitted it is not easy to chase her dream, but believes she can still become a role model with support from far and wide.
Ogiii stated as much in an exclusive interview with sports247.ng, during which she revealed her targets, while also highlighting issues that physically challenged athletes have to overcome and urged them to avoid performance enhancing drugs.
She began by going back in time and said: “I’ve been in this sport since 2018, and I’ve participated in some international qualifiers. Among them was a competition in Morocco in 2023 and the World Championship in Japan last year May, but I could not compete.
“I was motivated to come into para-athletics because I saw that I could do better. I was in the sports council for a while, and I saw people doing sports. When I saw the person who was the champion in my kind of disability, I felt I could do better. At that time, I was much younger. So, I knew I could also do what they were doing.
“The only thing I see as a hindrance in disability is anything that affects the mind or thinking ability, like madness or something like that. Once your mind is intact, you can think well and plan something then, disability is not a problem. But, I do face some challenges. In fact, I face a lot of them. One of which is that the place where I live is very far from the stadium where I train.
“Apart from that, in the space of two years, I had to relocate from the East to Port Harcourt and then from PH to Lagos, but I always find it hard to adapt. There’s also the financial aspect, because, in this sport, you have to go to an extent before you get employed or get sponsorship and all that. Those are the major challenges that I face.”
She then heaped praises on various government agencies, bodies, parastatals and officials that keep supporting physically challenged athletes, but stressed that a lot more still has to be done, especially in making selections for international trips.
Ogili expatiated: “The government is doing what they think they can at the meantime, but I think they can do more. If they can, for instance, extend more hands to us in terms of more opportunities for trips. Many are training but, when it comes to travelling, it’s just one person or two.
“We need more encouragement, especially for international competitions. Other countries take many athletes but, for our country, there will be only about four or five in number.
“Even Kenya and Senegal, you see them in 20s, in 30s, but Nigeria will just be two or three. Whereas they don’t do better than us. I also think there should be a balanced selection and they should give us more opportunities.”
She then spoke about her personal challenges and how she is battling to overcome them, even as she believes that her journey into global limelight is still on course, as she aims to be a role model who other athletes would love to emulate.
“I train four days in a week, but where I come from is very far from the stadium. So, on the days that I don’t come, I use them to relax properly, take care of myself and clean up. I would like to grow higher and better in the sport. I want to be somebody that others look up to and an encouragement to other people.
“I want them to say they knew me when I was suffering, when I was a baby in the sport, but now things have changed. That would give others the mind to also do better,” Ogili projected.
She concluded by warning athletes about the dangers of taking performance enhancing drugs and stressed that they all have to watch everything that they consume, in order not to be caught in the quagmire of banned substances.
“Regarding the issue of doping, it’s just for us athletes to play safe. If you know those things that are banned, just avoid them. Once you avoid them, when you hear anything about doping, you will not be scared. You should know what you take and avoid doping as much as you can,” Ogili admonished.
