The 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games held in Nanjing, China, from August 16 to 28 brought together the world's best young athletes, but didn’t offer much of an introduction into true Olympic values.
Teenage athletes from West Africa were banned from partaking in some sports and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement that athletes from the region will not be allowed to compete in combat sports or events in the pool.
In protest at the IOC’s unprecedented action, Nigerian athletes and officials in Nanjing were directed to leave after their country pulled out of the competition. Nigerian newspapers were in uproar as they described their athletes in quarantine, isolated and barred from training alongside other athletes of the world at the competition venue. The director general of Nigeria’s Sports Commission, Gbenga Elegbeleye, protested to the organizers that the treatment of Nigerian athletes was “inhuman.”
Telesur also reported that in September, during a wrestling championships in Uzbekistan, contestants from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Congo and Nigeria were simply excluded from the matches, and not allowed into the preliminary medical exams.
In October, Deutsche Welle or DW (Germany's international broadcaster) said that Serie A club AC Milan had "categorically denied" reports claiming Ghanaian international Michael Essien had contracted Ebola while playing for his country. DW also said that AC Milan released a statement the same week dismissing media reports that midfielder Essien was being treated after contracting the Ebola virus.
"AC Milan categorically denies the alleged reports from abroad about its players. Such reports are totally without foundation and what is more were never confirmed by any employee of the club," the statement said.
According to DW, The Daily Times Nigeria and Newswire NGR had both cited an AC Milan official in reports claiming that Essien had caught Ebola while on national team duty with Ghana. Moreover, Essien himself issued reassurances on his official Twitter and Instagram accounts, saying "I'm very fit and very healthy, no truth in the Internet rumors that I have contracted Ebola. I'm well and will be training as usual tomorrow," DW said.
Similarly, The Liverpool Echo featured former Liverpool schoolboy footballer Dele Adebola, who they said had been forced to reassure fans he has not had Ebola.
Adebola, who was brought up in Liverpool and played alongside Robbie Fowler as a boy, asked his supporters to stop questioning whether he had the deadly virus, the paper said.
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