President Muhammadu Buhari has charged Nigerian athletes participating in the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to excel at the competition.

The president, in a release on Tuesday by his Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, said he was sure Nigerian athletes participating in different events will excel at the competition, surpassing the previous record in PyeongChang, South Korea, in 2018, when the nation competed for the first time.

Recognising that the Olympic Games is a platform for closer friendship and cooperation between countries, President Buhari sincerely hoped that all athletes, in the pursuit of their Olympic dream, would promote the core values of the Games which are excellence, friendship and respect.

The president also congratulated China for hosting the Winter Olympics, lauding Beijing for making history as the first “dual Olympic city” in the world’s Olympic history, having hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008.

As a friendly and brotherly country to Nigeria, President Buhari affirmed the support of the Nigerian government and its people to China.

He believed that with China’s rich experience in organising international events, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, with the slogan “Together for a Shared Future”, will be delivered as a splendid, exceptional and extraordinary Olympic event for the world.