The Games of the XXXII Olympiad got underway on Friday, 23 July, against all odds.
Since the opening of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, the international sports competition has been cancelled thrice, once during World War I (1916) and twice during World War II (1940, 1944). Until the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, which forced the postponement of the Summer Olympic games for a year, the Olympics has weathered politically charged boycotts, two separate terrorist attacks without being cancelled or postponed during peacetime.
The ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four-four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, Greece. According to legend, it was Heracles who first called the Games “Olympic” and established the custom of holding them every four-four years.
Then came the modern Olympics which was first held in 1896 in Athens, Greece. It began after decades of increased interest in reviving the ancient games and the final push for international competition was led by a French baron named Pierre de Coubertin, who helped found the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, governed by a Charter which specifies that: “The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, to promote a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity”. So yes, the goal at the games is to participate with winning only coming in as a bonus.
Fast forward to the present.
The Tokyo 2020 Games in Japan is featuring 339 events in 33 different sports, encompassing a total of 50 disciplines but Team Nigeria, represented by 60 Athletes, is featuring in 10 events. The events are wrestling, judo, taekwondo, table tennis, badminton, male/female basketball, track and field, rowing, canoeing and sailing.
Since the nation made its debut in 1952, Nigerian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, except the 1976 edition held in Montreal, Canada, owing to boycott by African countries.
Nigerian athletes have won a total of 25 medals, mostly in athletics and boxing. The national football team won the Gold Medal in 1996. In 2008, following the International Olympic Committee’s decision to strip the American 4 × 400 metre relay team of their medals after Antonio Pettigrew confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs, their Nigerian rivals were awarded the Gold Medal. Nigeria also won a medal in the heavyweight division of taekwondo at the 1992 Summer Olympics; as this was only a demonstration sport, Emmanuel Oghenejobo’s Silver Medal did not count as an official win. Nigeria did not win a single medal at the London 2012 Olympics but picked a solitary Bronze Medal to finish 78, out of 207 countries, at the 2016 edition in Rio, Brazil.
So what are our chances this time? Who and who are our best medal hopefuls and what should be the expectations?
Well, the more one dissects the Nigerian contingent to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the more one gets convinced that only the ladies stand a chance of getting on the podium at the games. In fact, out of the 10 events, only two events present Nigeria with a realistic prospect of getting on the medals table.
The events are Athletics and Wrestling, and as previously stated, following an in-depth critical analysis of precedence and current form, the female athletes hold the ace for Nigeria. Here are my picks for the Athletes likely to win a medal of any colour for Nigeria.
ATHLETICS:
Blessing Okagbare:
It is now or never for the Sapele born 32-year-old Athlete. Since winning the long jump Bronze medal when she leapt a massive 6.91m in the final of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, she returned from the London 2012 and Rio 2016 games empty-handed, an underachievement even by her standards.
The Bronze she won back in 2008 was later upgraded to silver in 2017 when it was discovered that long and triple jump star, Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia, who finished second then was on drugs and was banned for life.
Blessing Okagbare is in blistering form going into Tokyo 2020 as she won the Nigeria national trials in a blistering wind-assisted 10.63 secs in Lagos just a few days after also running a sub 11 secs in Slovakia. She is now ranked number 5 in the world in the 100m and 7th in the 200m. She is also participating in the 4x100m women relay at the games.
Ese Brume:
Another Delta born Athlete from Ughelli. Ese Brume is the brightest medal hopeful for Nigeria going into the Olympics.
The new African record holder in the women’s Long jump event is hoping to do better than the 5th place finish she achieved at the games in 2016.
Brume at the Chula Vista Festival shattered Chioma Ajunwa’s African and Nigerian record, which had stood unchallenged for 25 years! She leapt a distance of 7.17m to effectively bury Ajunwa’s 7.12m record which was good enough at that time for a gold medal at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics.
The 7.17m-mark is also a World Lead and that makes her a firm favourite for a podium finish at the games. She is also participating in the 4×100m women relay.
Tobi Amusan:
The Ijebu-Ode born hurdler finished 11th at the 2016 games but that semi-final finish, achieved five years ago at the age of 20, convinced not a few Nigerians that a future champion has been born. A Commonwealth Gold in 2018 further boosted the belief but a 4th-place finish at the World Athletics Championship in Doha in 2019 kind of dampened morale. Oluwatobiloba Amusan has got all it takes and having conquered Africa and the Commonwealth might just surprise the world at the Tokyo games.
WRESTLING:
Odunayo Adekunroye:
She was beaten at the quarter-final stage of the 2016 Olympics. She is now 27 years and, in-between, she has won Silver and Bronze medals at the Wrestling World Championships. She is a two time Gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games and she is a former world number one. The Ondo State-born wrestler badly needs an Olympic medal and the time, more than ever, is now.
Blessing Oborududu:
Time is running out on the 31-year-old wrestler. At the 2016 edition, she was knocked out in the second round but since then, she has won gold at the Commonwealth Games and African Wrestling Championship. Blessing Oboruduru can go all the way in the 68kg class. Oh yes, she can.
Best of luck to the entire Nigerian contingent to the Olympics and Nigerians expect the Basketball teams to pull some interesting results, especially the men.
Follow the writer on Twitter and Instagram @woleopatola.
ALSO READ: https://rulersworld.com/tokyo-2020-stay-clean-win-clean-gumel-urge-team-nigeria/
