Olympics Committee of Namibia to take legal insurance for athletes

Namibia said they will in future take legal insurance for their athletes to avoid the situation that saw a boxer arrested on sexual charges during the Olympics games in Rio, Brazil.

Junius Jonas was arrested on charges of sexual assault in the Olympics village and spent some days in police custody before he was released into the custody of the Namibian embassy where he is still holed up until his next court appearance.

Addressing the media Thursday for the first since the team returned, the Namibia National Olympics Committee president Abner Xoagub said legal insurance will help the athletes to avoid situations similar to Jonas'.

Although Namibia sent 10 athletes to Rio, none of them managed a medal because, according to the chef de mission of the team, Jesse Schickerling time was wasted on solving issues involving athletes.

As a result, Schickerling said, the athletes were not well prepared in terms of time and they did not have enough funds.

Schickerling said they lodged four appeals to have the case of boxer Jonas released, while no training was going on.

According to Schickerling, it takes eight years to prepare an athlete who could win a medal at the Olympics.

Schickerling said Namibian track and field athletes did not participate in enough qualifying events, something that limited their chances of qualifying early, or qualifying at all.

"The first athletes were only identified mid-2015, which was way too late to help them prepare fully for the games," Schickerling said.

He also said they would need funding of between 1 million to 1,5 million U.S dollars per year.

Unfortunately, Schickerling said the Namibia National Olympic Committee only gave 100,000 Namibian dollars (about 7,000 U.S dollars) per athlete. Endit