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“I am starting a new chapter representing Türkiye.” With these words to her 40,000+ followers on Instagram, one of the most up-and-coming figures in African athletics made her switch of sporting allegiance official in September.
Favour Ofili revealed the announcement in her social media post, marking the start of a new phase in her career after leaving her home country. “I moved to Türkiye to save my career from officials,” was the recent statement from the US-based athletics star, who is seeing her change of flag being muddied by her home country’s National Sports Commission.
Barely six months later, however, the 23-year-old still had not competed for her new country, and her process had come to a standstill. A senior NSC official told The Guardian at the end of February that Ofili remains a Nigerian athlete. According to the official, she is even expected to carry the Nigerian flag at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
“She is still our athlete”, the executive remarked, before expressing that Ofili was among the elite athletes who received training scholarships last year, and “it is not possible” for her to change her nationality. “If she wants to compete for another country, she will have to wait until September 2028”, he added.
Her upward journey has been marred by episodes that have undermined her confidence in her country’s sporting institutions. In Tokyo, Ofili was one of the athletes excluded for failing to comply with out-of-competition doping controls. B efore Paris 2024, she was blacklisted for the 100-metre sprint, a decision that, as she confessed in tears during the event, left her utterly devastated.
“It is with great sadness that I have just been informed that I will not be competing in the 100-metre dash at these Games. I qualified, but those in charge did not register me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity. For what?” she revealed in 2024.
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Recently, Olympic medallist and former Africa’s number-one sprinter Mary Onyali said European countries had tried to tempt her to compete under their colours during her prime. She rejected the offers, she said, because of her “love for Nigeria.” Ofili responded, explaining that the circumstances were different and adding that Onyali “was never denied the opportunity to compete in any competition after working hard to qualify for it.”
Speaking through her coach, Dennis Shaver, weeks ago, Ofili said she decided to leave Nigeria to save her career. “I am a woman and I have a short-term job. I will soon be getting married and starting to think about having children. So this is the ideal time to make the most of the time I have left in my career,” she said, also denying that money was the main motivating factor behind her decision. Despite some fans viewing her move as a betrayal, many have supported the young Port Harcourt native.
Last year, the former president of the Nigerian Athletics Federation, Dan Ngerem, blamed poor athlete welfare for the exodus of stars. He argued that athletes “cannot be held responsible” when Nigeria consistently fails to provide adequate support for their development and welfare after investing heavily in their early training.
As has gradually become widely known in recent months, frustrated by its performance at the Games in France, 101 athletes, no gold medals, and 64th place in the medal table, Türkiye has launched a massive ‘signing’ campaign. The country is offering long-term financial support to athletics stars from Jamaica and sub-Saharan Africa to win a large number of gold medals at the LA28 Games.
Önder Özbilen, coordinator of Turkish athletes hoping to compete in Los Angeles 2028, confirmed this strategy in an interview with AFP last week. He stressed that these new recruits ‘are not mercenaries’ and said he was proud to have rescued several athletes who had been ‘abandoned’ by their respective federations.
Four Jamaicans, including 2024 Olympic gold medallist in the men’s discus throw Roje Stona, and five Kenyans, including former women’s marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei, have agreed to switch allegiances. The next step will be to see how the Ofili case unfolds and whether, should she qualify, she will be wearing scarlet red instead of the green and white she has represented for years on the track.
