No single Nigerian boxer will feature at Paris 2024 in France
Ed Emeanua
Nigeria will fail to participate in the boxing event at the Paris 2024 Olympics games after failing to qualify a single boxer, be it male or female, for the games next year.
Nigeria also failed to send any boxer to the 2020 Olympics, also over failure to qualify a single boxer for the Tokyo Olympics.
This is the second time that Nigeria will fail to send boxers to the Olympics since the nation began participating in the Games in 1952 except the 1976 Summer Olympics which it boycotted.
Nigerian athletes have managed to win a total of 27 medals, mostly in athletics and boxing against all odds, not for lack of talent, but mostly because of the poor manpower sequala of lack lustered management that has been bedeviling the ‘most populous Black Nation’ on the planet.
The Nigeria Olympics Committee was established in 1951 and the country persisted without winning a single Olympics medal to show for its endless participation at subsequent events until the 1964 version of the Games in Tokyo, Japan, when Nojim Maiyegun won the bronze medal in the Men’s light middleweight category.
Eight years on, another boxer-Isaac Ikhouria- won for Nigeria, her second Olympics medal when he beat out another bronze medal in the Men’s light heavyweight class of the 1972 Munich Games.
Nigeria suffered a twelve-year lapse on the medal rostrum before Peter Konyegwachie-another boxer-came to the rescue by winning Nigeria’s first Olympics silver medal through his sensational effort in the Men’s featherweight event at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
Also at that Games, Nigeria’s Men’s 4×400 meter relay team won the bronze medal of their event, to herald the entrance of Athletics as a major Olympics sport for the country.
Nigeria’s Men’s 4×400 meter relay team at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 that accomplished that feat featured Sunday Uti, Moses Ugbisie, Rotimi Peters, and Innocent Egbunike.
At the Barcelona Games in 1992, boxing and athletics rivalled each other to gain the edge. Olapade Adeniken, Davidson Ezinwa, Chidi Imoh, Oluyemi Kayode, and Osmond Ezinwa, won the silver medal in the Men’s 4×100 meter relay event.
David Izonritei then boxed out a silver medal of his own in the Men’s heavyweight class to rival athletics at that Games, which was then immediately upgraded by Richard Igbineghu’s exploits via winning another boxing silver medal this time in the Men’s super heavyweight class at Barcelona 1992.
Another bronze medal feat by Nigeria’s Women’s 4×100 meter athletics relay team featuring Beatrice Utondu, Christy Opara Thompson, Mary Onyali, and Faith Idehen, wrapped up Nigeria’s medals exploit at Barcelona 1992.
The nation eventually won her first and second gold medals, all at the 1996 Olympics games in Atlanta, USA through the exploits of Chioma Ajunwa in the Women’s long jump event in athletics, and in the Men’s football competition.
The Nigeria football team to the Atlanta Olympics Games consisted of Daniel Amokachi, Emmanuel Amuneke, Tijani Babangida, Celestine Babayaro, Emmanuel Babayaro, Teslim Fatusi, Victor Ikpeba, Dosu Joseph, Nwankwo Kanu, Garba Lawal, Abiodun Obafemi, and Kingsley Obiekwu.
Others in that team include, Uche Okechukwu, Jay-Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Mobi Oparaku, Wilson Oruma, and Taribo West.
Olabisi Afolabi, Fatima Yusuf, Charity Opara, and Falilat Ogunkoya also won silver in the Women’s 4×400 meter relay with the pair of Mary Onyali and Falilat Ogunkoya each winning a bronze in the Women’s 200 meters and Women’s 400 meters events respectively, all through athletics in the Atlanta Olympics of 1996.
Duncan Dokiwari’s bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics games of 1996 in the Men’s super heavyweight category was the last time a Nigerin won a boxing medal at the Olympics games.
