A Japanese plastic surgeon gave Nigeria’s Olympics soccer team $390,000 for coming third
After defeating Honduras in the third place match at the Olympics soccer event on Saturday (Aug. 20), Nigeria’s players ended up with bronze medals on their necks and thousands of dollars in their pockets—thanks to Katsuya Takasu, a Japanese plastic surgeon.
The grinning Takasu flew into Rio to rewarded the team with $390,000 for their bronze medal win at the Rio Games after being impressed by the team’s resilience despite the haphazard planning and poor conditions before and during the Games.
After the Nigerian team was left stranded in Atlanta, USA, ahead of the Games because their flights had not been paid for, their plight made headlines. Eventually, the team landed in Rio just seven hours ahead of their first game, against Japan. But despite the less than ideal circumstances, the team served up an impressive performance to beat the Japan and eventually finished top of their group. But the money troubles didn’t end there. Hours before the quarterfinal match against Denmark, Nigeria’s players threatened to boycott the game in protest over unpaid allowances. After reading the team’s financial struggles, Takasu said he “felt the need to make a big contribution.”
Takasu donated $200,000 to the team to “cover bonuses and allowances” and also donated $10,000 to all members of the 18-man team as well as the team manager for winning bronze. Takasu flew to Rio to personally deliver cheques to the team.
“I had traveled from Tokyo prepared to reward them anyway, and to watch them win the bronze inside the stadium was very fulfilling,” he told BBC.
“This team showed resilience and fought the hardest to achieve success despite all their problems. Some people would have given up but they didn’t,” Takasu is reported to have said.
Takasu’s donation was briefly the subject of corruption allegations as officials of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) were forced to deny reports that they planned to make Takasu give the money to the federation rather than to the players. “To say NFF has ‘hijacked’ the money is outright mischief,” Amaju Pinnick, NFF president, said. “Nigeria is a sovereign nation and such a donation must go through a process. If we get a go-ahead, it will go directly to the team.” Reports had suggested the NFF planned to use the donation to offset salaries of members of the coaching staff who have not been paid for the last five months.
Takasu’s gesture was a positive turn in an otherwise poor Olympics outing for Nigeria. Despite lofty targets set by the country’s sports minister, the bronze medal won by the soccer team was the only medal recorded by the entire Olympics contingent.
This Ethiopian runner’s protest gesture at the Rio marathon could put his life at risk
At the Olympic marathon finish line in Rio on Sunday, Feyisa Lilesa from Ethiopia staged a protest that he says could get him arrested or killed back home. The 26-year-old runner crossed his wrists and held his arms over his head as he approached the crossing line as he came in second. It was a gesture of solidarity with the Oromo protests that have taken place in the country since November last year.
“The Ethiopian government is killing my people so I stand with all the protests anywhere as Oromo is my tribe,” Lilesa said.
The Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, have been protesting against the government, demanding equal economic opportunities, political reform and an end to police crackdown. Hundreds of people have been killed, according to human rights organizations, including at least 97 who were killed earlier this month when security forces fired live bullets at protestors. The Amhara, the country’s second ethnic group, recently joined the anti-government protests too.
At a press conference, Lilesa expressed fear that his life could be in danger if he went back to Ethiopia.
“If not kill me, they will put me in prison,” Lilesa said. “I have not decided yet, but maybe I will move to another country.”
In another video interview that surfaced online later, Lilesa said he was thinking of extending his visa in Brazil, move to America, or possibly go to Kenya if the government there gives him a working permit. “There, they are very friendly,” he said of Kenya.
Lilesa said that he didn’t inform his manager or his teammates about the decision to show support for the Oromo protests. He also added that he didn’t know about the condition of his family who were currently living in the capital, Addis Ababa. Some of his relatives, he said, were previously imprisoned by Ethiopia’s Tigray-dominated government.
The Ethiopian state broadcaster didn’t show Lilesa’s protest, choosing only to show Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge win the gold medal, according to the Associated Press. Lilesa won the silver medal at the Olympic marathon. This places Ethiopia at number 44 at the 2016 Rio Olympic games with a total of eight medals.
Lilesa’s protest is not without precedent at the Olympics, even though the IOC works hard to prevent the actual event or athletes being politicized. Perhaps one of the most iconic images of the Olympics is the Black Power fist salute raised by USA’s Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Lilesa earlier vowed to protest(video, 4:29) during the medal ceremony, a move that could have seen him stripped of his medal in accordance with the International Olympic Committee’s Rule 50 (pdf, p. 93). He crossed his wrists at the flower ceremony following the run, but didn’t do so during the medal awarding ceremony.
“I cannot do anything about that,” Lilesa said of the rule. “This was my feeling. I have a big problem in my country, it is very dangerous to make protest in my country.”
Ethiopian athletes, some of them Oromo, have in the past fled Ethiopia, citing persecution, imprisonment and torture.
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