Nigeria: Paris Olympics - Team Nigeria's Medal Hopes Dimmed, Bow Out of 10 Events

5 August 2024
Leadership (Abuja)
By Salifu Usman

With the exception of the women basketball team, D'Tigress, who have qualified for their first-ever quarterfinal at the Olympic Games after a thrilling 79-70 win over Canada in their final group B match on Sunday, Team Nigeria's wobbly performances at the ongoing Paris Games persists with the country's athletes crashing out of 10 events they entered for.

The faltering performances of Nigeria's contingent in Paris contrary to pre-Games expectations, like previous Olympics, is an indictment of the country's consistently inept sports administration as it was evidence in the reckless exclusion of the nation's national champion and only medal hopeful, Favour Ofili, from the women's 100m race.

As it stands, there is huge doubt over Team Nigeria's chances of winning at least a medal at the ongoing games and the facts are not far-fetched as the Team have been eliminated from 10 events at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games either after painful losses of its athletes or for administrative lapses.

  1. Boxing - Men/Women: Cynthia Ogunsemilore was provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance ahead of her opening fight.

Nigerian champion, Olaitan Olaore was beaten 5-0 by Kazakhstan's Oralbay Aibek in his opening fight at the game, dashed Nigeria's hope for a medal in boxing.

  1. Table Tennis - Men/Women's Singles: Nigeria' duo of Aruna Quadri and Omotayo Olajide lost their opening match at the Paris Games 4-3 and 4-1 respectively to bid the Game goodbye.

In the Women's Table Tennis Singles category Offiong Edem and Fatimo Bello lost 4-0 respectively and are out of the contest in Paris.

  1. Badminton: Team Nigeria's captain and sole representative in men's single, Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori crashed out after losing his first and second group match respectively.
  1. Football - Women: The Super Falcons ended their campaign at the Paris Games without a single point after losing all their three matches in group C to Brazil 1-0, Spain 1-0 and Japan 3-1 respectively.
  1. Swimming Men/Women: Tobi Sijuade failed to advance to the next round of the Men's 50m Freestyle after finishing in third position with 23.34s which wasn't enough for him to progress to the semifinals.

In the women's 50m swimming freestyle final, Adaku Nwandu, a 16-year-old Beijing based Nigerian swimmer came 2nd in her heat with 26.62secs, but it wasn't one of the 16 fastest times that made the final.

  1. Athletics - Men/Women's 100m: Godson Oghenebrume was not in the line up for the Men's 100m heats despite the fact that he qualified for the 100m. While Favour Ofili was ruled out of the women's 100m because either Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) or Nigeria Olympic Committee failed to register her name despite being qualified for the event.

Godbless crashed out of the women's 100m after finishing 6th in her Heat in a time of 11.33 seconds, while Rosemary Chukwuma finished in 8th position in the 2nd women's 100m semifinal.

  1. High Jump - Women: Temitope Adeshina failed to make the final of the women's high jump event after finishing 9th in Group B with a jump of 1.88m
  1. Athletics - Mixed 4X400m: The quartet of Samuel Ogazi, Ella Onojuvwevwo, Ifeanyi Ojeli and Patience Okon-George finished 4th in Heat 2 of the Mixed 4X400m relays in a time of 3:11.99, though setting a new national record, and failed to make the final.
  1. Discus - Women: The trio of Ashley Anumba, Chioma Onyekwere and Obiageri Amaechi exited the Paris Games after the first round in women's Discus.
  1. Shot Put - Men: Three African champion Chukwuebuka Enekwechi finished 5th in the men's shot put final with a throw of 21.42m and didn't make it to the podium.

LEADERSHIP Sports reports that the last time Nigeria had its national anthem played in an Olympic arena, with its athlete(s) standing atop the gold medal podium, was in Atlanta 1996 when Chioma Ajunwa won the Women's long jump event and the U23 men's football team pulled off the same feat. At Sydney in 2000, Nigeria's 4x400 metre relay team initially finished second, but that position was revised upwards following a doping investigation that stripped the winning Team USA of its gold medal. These account for all of Nigeria's gold medals since athletes began representing the country at the Olympics in 1952, which is apt when its total Olympics medal haul currently stands at 27.

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