Disqualified athletes receive N668,000 Samsung phones from IOC

Something to tone down raging tempers has come the way of 10 Nigerian athletes who are ineligible to compete in the Tokyo Olympics as each of them has received Samsung Galaxy S21 5G phones worth N668, 999.00.

The Samsung phones have been given to all athletes who qualified and are resident at the Olympic Village.

The Nigerian athletes got their largesse only after the request made by Team Nigeria on behalf of the embattled athletes was approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The letter of approval was signed by Jonas Brun, Junior Project Manager, NOC Relations/ NOC Services.

“Regarding your athletes that will not participate in competitions in Tokyo in light of the latest information received, I confirm that you can still go ahead and give phones to the athletes”, the letter reads.

The phones which were delivered to all National Olympics Committees (NOC) at the Games Village was in order for them to benefit from all important information included in the Athlete365website and also to comply with requirements set forth in the Play books, in particular the download and use of the apps required by the Japanese authorities.

The Nigeria Olympic Committee like all other NOCs had received the phones on behalf of their athletes but could not extend such gestures to the ineligible athletes as they tried to abide by the rules.

The approval by the IOC to extend the Samsung phones gifts to the ineligible athletes had since been complied by the NOC.