Minimum costs of $300K to get athletes to the site prove too much for Pacific nation
With only a few days left before the scheduled start of the 2018 Yap MicroGames, Nauru has announced its official withdrawal from the event based on financial considerations.
In a letter to the games organizing committee, Marcus Stephen, President of the Nauru Olympic Committee said, "It is a big disappointment for us as we had ordered all our uniforms and paid for them but due to the travel costs / arrangement, it is simply not feasible for us."
Stephens said the only option Team Nauru was to split costs of a charter flight with Kiribati, but the numbers did not work.
"[T]he Charter flight would cost us $300,000.00 in total which would equate to about $7,500 per person considering our reduced number plus add uniforms and village per diem costs. Our Government even though very supportive saw that it was not feasible to spend this kind of money and can be better spent elsewhere."
Stephens asked in the future for some financial aid to be given to the more distant participants.
Every Micro Games is a challenge for us especially with the travel up North and the Commonwealth Games is in the same year which does not help us and it is a very important Games for us as well to attend. Probably, for future Games if hosted up North, we hope that some consideration and concession can be given to Nauru and Kiribati to assist us. This can be a discussion for later."