London 2012: I will produce hardwork result -Chukwumerije

How does it feel going into the 2012 Olympics first bout? Olympic is a special event, it is the world’s biggest sporting event, so it is an event devoid of politics and economics. It is just young people coming together to show what they are made of. So, you have countries that are at each […]

How does it feel going into the 2012 Olympics first bout?

Olympic is a special event, it is the world’s biggest sporting event, so it is an event devoid of politics and economics. It is just young people coming together to show what they are made of. So, you have countries that are at each other’s neck with their athletes at the Games Village hugging each other, eating together and all that.

Don’t forget that Olympics has been around for ages, in fact the ancient Olympics has been around like in 1766 BC and all that; so it has a long history and for me to become part of it is something special, and I just thank God for giving me the support and opportunity to be part of something that will be there forever. I am happy just to be part of it.

Wining the Olympics or winning a medal is just an ice on the cake, just being part of it and giving your best is itself an achievement and every Olympian will tell you it is a good feeling to be there.

You have participated in two previous Olympic Games, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008; and in Beijing, expectations were so high but maybe it was designed by God Almighty for you to come fourth with a bronze medal. For one that has won a bronze medal, the least he should get or expect in the next Olympics is a silver or possibly the gold medal, do you have any projection for yourself?

This is what I normally tell people, that there are people that went to the Olympics and for the first time they won a medal, and there are those that have gone to four or five Olympic Games and have not won anything.

So, I would not allow anybody to put me under pressure because for one, this is my dream and when I had this dream nobody was there, what I envisage for the Olympics remains my dream.

In Athens, I did not go to the Olympics to lose, I went there to make a point but I lost my first fight; in Beijing I did not go there to win a bronze but I came out with a bronze. I did not do progression, what I did was ‘always give your best’, and that is the most important story to pass on to our kids.

Between now and London 2012 what am I doing to be at the Olympics, am I working hard or dedicated in training? Do I give my all, and do I have the right equipments, have I been to the right places, have I performed the right analysis? If I have done all these and have done everything that is right, when it gets to London, give the person the support and that is the way it should be.

We cannot keep encouraging a situation where when people lose their first fight, you abandon them because you are not just building athletes, you are building leaders of tomorrow, and therefore, there should be continuity.

So, for London 2012 Olympic Games, my goal is my own, so I don’t need to tell anybody. So, when I hear everybody claiming gold, I just smile because that is their business, for me, I know what I wrote in the book, and I have been working hard at it for years and I will go to the Olympics like that.

There is pressure everywhere, the people that love you want you to do well, and there are those who don’t love you and don’t want you to do well, but for me, it doesn’t matter; I am just going to keep the focus and keep training hard; my teammate is training hard, and hopefully when the Olympics come, we will get a result that is indicative of all the hard work that we have been doing.

What is your reaction to belief that marshal athletes are violent set of people?

As a taekwondo player you don’t fight outside the ring, it is not allowed, and you don’t do anything unless you are attacked. So, you hardly find a true marshal athlete who goes out of the ring to raise his finger against anybody.

So, contrary to wrong perception, we are the most peaceful people on planet Earth.

How much influence will you say your family has brought into your career?

Family is everything and is always first. Family does not judge you; family only wants you to do well for everybody.

So this plays a very key role in a child when he wants to do something and he has support from the family; it goes a long way.

Now I am a bit older, so it might not be as important as when I was just 14 years old and you have all sort of uncertainties growing up. Then when you have the support of the people around you, saying look we love you and if this is what you want to do, we want you to go ahead with it and we are going to support you to achieve it.

That kind of encouragement gives one the confidence and it goes down the line. So, my family played a very key role in this, they supported me. Even when nobody believed it, they believed in it and even when I failed they stood by me all the way, and my love always goes out to them, I appreciate them for all the support they have given to me.

Finally Chika, if you agree with me you are a role model kids will look up to you and kids will says if Chika did this, we too can do it, what specific message for you have to them?

I want kids to be themselves. We need creativity. My dad told me that I should have creative dissatisfaction. If you look at facebook or iPod those who designed them were once kids.

So, I want to encourage kids to play and pray hard because when they are in their elements, they have a kind of loose ideas that come and can change the future.

But I also want to encourage them to also work hard because we want them to grow and fill up the Nigerians landscape, in politics, economy and sporting landscape.

So, they should work hard, be disciplined and be serious about their studies; as well as love their parents and obey them. I will also encourage them to do sports because there are a lot to benefit from, like health and education. Sports also mould a character, if you are running a race, do your best, you may not be first but do your best.

There are referees in every sports and whenever the referee says stop, everybody stop and that is teaching them the rules of the society and how to obey the authority. So, sports actually teach a lot about life.

If you allow your children to do sports, you are teaching them all about life and how to surmount the challenges.