Rio 2016 participation cost Ghana $750,000

The Chef de Mission of Ghana at the Rio Olympic Games, Chris Essilfie, has revealed that the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) submitted a budget of $750,000 to the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) for their preparations and participation at the competition.

Mr Essilfie explained that the budget initially considered 25 athletes, but 16 participated for the country.

Briefing journalists on the preparations and participation of Team Ghana at Rio 2016 in Accra yesterday, he noted that he led a delegation of 32 people which comprised 16 athletes and 16 officials to the games.

At a media briefing yesterday, Mr Essilfie said, "we sent a budget of $750,000 to the Ministry for the Rio Olympics but that considered 25 athletes".

"As you know, we could only take 16 athletes because they qualified for the games," he added.

He, however, noted that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) took the cost of the delegation’s ticketing, and others sponsoring the team.

Mr Essilfie stressed that athletes and officials left for Rio in batches, with the first batch departing Ghana on July 31, while the second batch left on August 2.

Meanwhile, the president of the GOC, Prof. Francis Dodoo, has attributed Ghana's failure to win a medal to lack of investment in the athletes by government.

He noted that the performances put up by the athletes at the Games revealed that the country possessed a lot of future in winning laurels “if investment is put into them.”