My plan is to go to the US for swimming competition in October if granted visa – Coach Dreh

A versatile swimming coach and an expert in the sport, Akinrodoye Dare Samuel aka Coach Dreh, has disclosed his plans to go to the United States of America (USA) in October this year if he is eventually granted visa for the trip.

Coach Dreh, the CEO and founder of Ocean 28 Swimming Academy, said in an interview that he recently got an official invitation for Iron man Triathlon in California, United States of America, holding on October 27, 2024.

He said that Iron man is a 3.9km swim,180.2km cycling and a 42.2km running.

‘So, you do the swimming first and once you are done, you get on your bicycle, you cycle and thereafter you run a full marathon, everything happening in one day. I got the invitation and I am training hard for it. I have been able to get a number of support. i- fitness has been supporting in terms of giving me a gym facility to be able to train, but it’s kind of challenging,” he said.

He however, added that he has not been able to secure American visa for the competition.

Coach Dreh urged the federal and states governments to encourage swimming and “understand that in this part of the world we are not where we are supposed to be. So every form of support is actually needed for the sport.”

He stated that support is needed in all forms; whether it is physical, financial or even for them to approve the sport as part of curriculum in schools, saying that everybody actually needs to learn how to swim.

“If only they know the benefits of swimming, I think it is something that the government needs to place more emphasis on.

“As I was saying earlier on, even this trip that I am going for in the United States, there has been quite a number of challenges back and forth, even trying to get some supports from the government.

“On this same issue, I have actually flown to Abuja three consecutive times. I went to the Ministry of Sports to let them assist me to get myself out there. It is a thing that we ought to get support from the government for.

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“So, I think the sport is not getting the kind of support that is needed in Nigeria right now and I really hope that some day I can actually change this narrative. But how do I do that, I need to get out there, prove to this people that there are lots of opportunities out there.

“Personally, I still want this to work because recently I was denied the US visa. What I am just trying to say in essence is that I still want to be there.

“I am actually trying to reapply for the US visa and one of the reasons I want to do that is I need to prove to myself and every other person that you don’t give up, just try again one more time. In addition to that, I want to be in this competition.

“I am also trying to register for another Ironman competition in Morocco, which happens on the same day October 27, depending on which one is possible,” he said.

Coach Dreh stated that Ocean 28 Academy is a professional swimming academy, which focuses on sports for development rather than sports development.

He said that it is not that they don’t do sports development, but that the major difference is that sports development involves participating in sports, winning medals, adding that sports for development tries to impact the society, and the environment, and tries to settle disputes with sports.

“That is what we do basically. Addressing societal issues using sports. Yes, we still do sports development, we focus a little bit more on that and it is the reason we did something on mental health like swimming the entire length of the Lagos Third Mainland Bridge that was used to sensitise the general public against suicide attempts and depression” he said.

On making swimming a popular sport, he said that he has tried to impact his own environment in his own little way by educating people more about the sport. teaching them about how to swim and educating them on the advantages, and the mental health side of sport.

“Yes, what the sport can actually give to you and the fact that it is actually a non-contact sport even makes it a safer sport for you to do and also for the fact that it exercises all parts of the body makes it a very good sport for you.

“So, I have been sensitizing people in every society that I find myself over the years and at least for now, I can tell you confidently that I have trained over a thousand people myself, not to talk of the coaches that work with me.

“Personally, I can tell you that I have trained over 1000 people with proofs and records. Right from Ghana to Nigeria. In Ghana, I studied at the University of Ghana (Legon) and I read Political Science and Archaeology.

“While I was there, I happened to be the first Nigerian to captain the university’s school team in swimming and till today I am still the first international student sports president of the university. The university is over 76 years now But while I was there, it was 70 years old,” he said.

On what prompted him into swimming, he said that he didn’t grow up with the skill, but that he grew up not being able to identify his skill, or talent.

He stressed that despite the fact that he was sent to the best schools, he had that struggle as a child.

He said: “So, while growing up, everybody felt that this child is normal, but deep down myself I knew that there was this vacuum that needed to be filed.

“I laid my hands on a number of things; photography,shoe making even tailoring at that particular age and I was just trying to find myself doing something, but eventually it didn’t just click, until I came across swimming.

“My parents really didn’t like water, especially my mum, she did not like it, as it is in a normal African community. She went as far as saying any water that is more than seven buckets contains evil spirit until I got into a little bit of swimming here and there. I thought I knew how to swim until I got to University of Ghana (Legon) I owe them that credit actually.

“When I got there, one morning, when I was just walking around, trying to figure out one or two things to do, I stumbled around the pool side at about 4:30am or 5 am and I saw these people training around that time of the day and I was like really it was beautiful and I sneaked into their school team program. That was the beginning, I will like to share the story another day.

“Though I was not yet good, they didn’t chase me out and reading their mind and body language they said ‘don’t worry this guy will die here, don’t worry, he won’t be able to keep up.’ That was not true as I just kept on growing until I qualified for my first competition and the pay was actually good even outside the country.

“We went to some other competitions and we were paid in dollars even in cedes and the hospitality was different. That was it and I just fell in love with the sport. I stayed there and I kept on building my community and we kept on growing together. So that was it for me.”