First Olympic Medalist of Nigeria, Nojim Maiyegun, Dies At 83

Nojim Maiyegun, a former Nigerian boxer, has died at 83.

The death of the legendary boxer was confirmed on Monday in a Facebook post by Rudolfine F Soultan, a confidante.

“My Jimmy died. I can’t say more about this right now because it’s just horrible. The day after tomorrow, we would have been together for 17 years,” the post reads.

A source close to the family of the deceased also told TheCable that Maiyegun breathed his last on Monday morning at his base in Vienna, Austria.

Maiyegun, who became visually impaired a few years ago, was reportedly battling an unnamed illness for a couple of months.

He was the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal.

Maiyegun was 23 when he won a bronze medal in the light-heavyweight boxing category at Tokyo 1964.

In the second round of the competition, he defeated Great Britain’s William Robinson in just one minute and 59 seconds — a remarkable feat in amateur boxing.

He defeated Tom Bogs of Denmark in the quarter-final before losing to France’s Joseph Gonzalez in the semi-final.

Maiyegun and Poland’s Józef Grzesiak settled for the bronze.

Two years later, in 1966, he won another bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.

Maiyegun left Nigeria in 1971 to begin a professional boxing career.

He fought 16 times and won 12 — 10 of them by knockouts.

By Ololade, Information Nigeria

Nigeria becomes first African basketball team to qualify for Olympic quarterfinals

Ezinne Kalu had a giant smile on her face as she joined her teammates for a celebratory run around the court with Nigerian flags.

Nigeria had reached a place no African country in men’s or women’s basketball had ever gone before — the quarterfinals of the Olympics.

Kalu scored 21 points and Nigeria secured a spot in the elimination round in Paris by downing Canada 79-70 on Sunday for its second win of the Olympics.

“It means a lot, you know, not just to us as a team, but to the entire world of Africa,” Kalu said. “It only gets harder from here.”

When the final buzzer sounded, the team went to midcourt to start celebrating, with an assistant coach using her phone to record the moment. The Nigerians stopped to high-five the Canadians, and then returned to celebrating with a midcourt huddle.

An assistant coach grabbed a flag from a fan for photos on the court, and the Nigerians took their time hugging and posing for more photos as they savored the moment.

“Surreal. This isn’t going to hit me for another couple of hours,” coach Rena Wakama said. “I’m extremely proud of my girls.”

Nigeria opened the Paris Games with a surprising victory against Australia. That was the first win in the Olympics in 20 years for the African nation.

It has been a difficult few years for Nigeria since the team reached the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup. The country was winless at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and then internal strife between the basketball federation and the government caused the team to miss playing in the World Cup in 2022.

The Olympics got off to a difficult start for the Nigerian team. The team was denied access to Nigeria’s boat for the opening ceremony on July 26.

Now Nigeria will play the defending Olympic champs in the U.S. in the final quarterfinal Wednesday night in Bercy Arena on the banks of the Seine River.

“I’m starting to see the light. I mean, the tunnel has been pretty dark, but I’m happy we get to see the light,” Kalu said. “I mean, there’s so much more, there’s so much more to come.”

Nigeria almost had company in Paris on the men’s side as South Sudan, which was playing in its first Olympic basketball tournament, narrowly missed reaching the quarterfinals. South Sudan would have been the first men’s team from Africa to advance that far, but the team lost to Serbia in its final group stage match Saturday.

South Sudan beat Puerto Rico in its tournament opener to set up the opportunity.

“We have these women. So we are very proud,” FIBA Africa Regional Director Alphonse Bilé told the AP. “We are all Africa. I can say that they don’t just play for Nigeria but play for Africa.”

By Doug Feinberg, AP

Related story: Nigeria beat Australia in Women's Basket Ball at 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris

Nigeria beat Australia in Women's Basket Ball at 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris

 Nigeria’s coaches and players soaked in the moment, taking in the cheers from the crowd as they stood at center court.

The team had just pulled off a surprising victory against Australia in the Olympic opener for both teams. It was the first win in the Olympics in 20 years for the African nation.

It happened a few days after the team made the 2 1/2-hour trek from Lille to Paris for the opening ceremony only to be denied access to the country’s boat by its own federation because there wasn’t enough room, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on Friday on condition of anonymity because the Nigeria delegation has not publicly commented.

“It feels so good. It’s been a tough couple of days,” said Amy Okonkwo, who scored 13 points in the win. “We’ve stuck together and this is what it’s about. Like, you overcome adversity and you fight until the finish and you come out with the win.”

The players didn’t want to get into the specifics of what happened Friday night.

“I just want to leave the past in the past. I can’t do anything about it,” Okonkwo said. “But what we can do is focus on what we can do on the court and execute our game plan and continue to just take everything in stride and take it one day at a time.”

It has been a difficult few years for Nigeria since the team reached the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup. The country was winless at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and then internal strife between the basketball federation and the government caused the team to miss playing in the World Cup in 2022.

“Sometimes you fight with your brother, your sister, and the next day you make up and you’re friends again,” said Ezinne Kalu, who had 19 points against Australia. “So that’s all we’ve been doing these past few years. Just fighting and just trying to stay together as a team. And today, prove that we can continue to be great.”

Kalu added that the team has gone through so much off the court, but people haven’t been paying attention.

“Nobody cares what we go through off the court,” the guard said. “They just see what we do on the court.”

It was the country’s first win in the Olympics since 2004, when Nigeria beat South Korea 68-64 in the 11th-place game. That’s the only other win by an African team in women’s basketball at the Olympics. The continent is now 2-36.

“We can do anything we put our minds to,” Nigeria coach Rena Wakama said. “I think nobody believed that we could do it, except for the 20 people in my locker room.”

Assistant coach Aisha Mohammed has been a part of both wins now; she was a player on the 2004 team. She saw a lot of similarities between the two victories.

“That game is kind of like this one,” she said. “You know the fight from the beginning, you know, at the end, we didn’t give up. We kept fighting and fighting.”

The difference was that win over South Korea was at the end of the Olympics, and this one is just the beginning. The Nigerians have a lofty goal of trying to reach the quarterfinals — something no African country has ever done.

It’s been a great start to the Olympics for Africa. The South Sudan men’s basketball team won its opener in the country’s first-ever Olympic game.

By Doug Feinberg, AP

Video - Canoe and para canoe 2024 Olympic qualifiers underway in Nigeria

The inaugural Confederation of Africa Canoe Sprint and Para Canoe qualifiers for the 2024 Olympic games in Paris begun in Nigeria. Nearly 15 nations are competing for Olympic berths, with the International Canoe Federation hailing the continent for the enthusiastic turnout.

CGTN

Nigerian athletes disqualified from Olympics due to inadequate drug testing

10 out of Nigeria’s 23 track and field athletes have been forced to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympic Games because they did not meet the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 of the Anti-Doping Rules. In other words, the athletes did not receive the minimum amount of out-of-competition testing leading up to the Games in order to compete.

According to Nigerian news outlet, channelstv.com, the athletes are blaming their disqualification on negligence by their country’s sport administrators, and have taken to the streets in Tokyo to protest the decision to disqualify them from competition. The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has taken responsibility for the lapses, but it will not be enough to have the affected athletes reinstated.

The disqualified athletes are now protesting with signs that read “why should we suffer because of someone else’s negligence?” and “all we wanted to do was compete.” Eight athletes from other countries were also disqualified for the same reason. To clarify, none of the athletes involved were taken out of competition because of doping violations or missed tests, but rather because their country’s governing body responsible for testing athletes failed to test them enough times before the Games.

Prior to the Olympics, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the independent body created by World Athletics to manages all integrity issues, identified Nigeria’s federation as “Category A” after a continued period of weak domestic testing levels. Other category A countries include Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Ukraine. One Nigerian athlete, sprinter and long jumper Blessing Okagbare, has been disqualified for failing a drug test on Saturday. 

By Brittany Hambleton 

Canadian Running

Nigeria pulls off stunning pre-Olympic men's basketball victory over U.S.

This is not how USA Basketball expected to open its Olympic summer.

Nigeria probably didn't expect it, either.

If there was any expectation of invincibility for the Americans heading into the Tokyo Olympics, it's already gone after Nigeria beat the U.S. 90-87 on Saturday night, an international shocker pulled off by a roster primarily filled by little-known NBA players that found a way to beat a group of all NBA, all-star and max-contract performers.

"We just wanted to compete," said Nigeria's Gabe Nnamdi, who goes by Gabe Vincent when playing for the Miami Heat. "We know what USA Basketball means around the world and what they've stood for for so long."

The U.S. had lost 11 games before Saturday in major international play --Olympics and World Cups, mostly -- since NBA players began filling the American rosters with the first Dream Team in 1992. None of those losses came against a team from Africa.

"I thought that the Nigerian team played very physically, did a great job in that regard and knocked down a lot of 3s," U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said. "Give them credit."

Nnamdi led Nigeria with 21 points. Caleb Agada scored 17 points, Ike Nwamu added 13 and Nigeria outscored the U.S. 60-30 from 3-point range.

Kevin Durant, who had never played in a loss for USA Basketball in 39 senior international games, had 17 points. Jayson Tatum added 15, Damian Lillard had 14 and Bam Adebayo 11.
 

Lopsided meetings

"Just goes to show that we have to play better," Tatum said.

A lot better.

The Americans had gone 39-0 in their last three Olympic seasons, including pre-Olympic exhibitions, on their way to gold medals and had been 54-2 in major exhibitions since NBA players began playing for USA Basketball in 1992. Plus, they'd beaten Nigeria by a combined 127 points in their last two meetings, one at the 2012 London Games, the other a warmup for the 2016 Rio Games.
Nigeria lost to the U.S. at the 2012 Olympics by 83 points. Lost to the Americans again four years later in an exhibition, that time by 44 points.

Not this time.

"Nigeria's come a long way with their basketball," USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said.

Ike Iroegbu, a former Washington State player who played in the G League, hit a 3-pointer with about 1:15 left to put Nigeria up 88-80. Durant scored the next seven points for the U.S.; a 3-pointer, two free throws following a turnover, then two more from the line with 16.5 seconds remaining.
 

3-time reigning Olympic champs

Nnamdi made two foul shots with 13.2 seconds left to restore Nigeria's three-point edge. The Americans ran 9.7 seconds off the clock on the ensuing possession without getting a shot off, and Zach LaVine missed a pair of free throws — the second intentionally — with 3.5 seconds left.

Precious Achiuwa got the rebound for Nigeria, and that was it. It's only an exhibition but the upset was still of the massive variety — the 22nd-ranked nation by FIBA beating the No. 1-ranked team and three-time reigning Olympic gold medallists.

Popovich heard the final buzzer and shook hands with Nigeria coach Mike Brown, the Golden State assistant, as the Americans walked off stunned.
"At the end of the day, it doesn't mean much in the standings as far as where we're trying to get to," Brown said. "But it's a good win for us. I don't think any African team has been able to beat USA Basketball in an exhibition game or a real game. … We're trying to get a little bit of momentum for Nigeria and for the continent of Africa."

The U.S. led 43-41 at the half, then pushed the lead out to 52-43 early in the third. But the Nigerians connected on 3s on their next three possessions — Vincent, Achiuwa and Nwamu all connected — and just like that, the game was tied.

Achiuwa took one 3-pointer all season with the Heat. It missed. But he connected in this one, as did Miye Oni -- who made two 3s in the fourth quarter, including the one that put Nigeria up for good with 6:08 left. Oni averaged all of 1.9 points per game this season for Utah and made two enormous shots late Saturday to help seal the U.S. fate.

"We kept the game simple," Nnamdi said, "and came out on top."
 

Tip-ins

Nigeria: Achiuwa had perhaps the night's top defensive play with 1:23 left in the first half, reaching with his left hand to block a Durant dunk attempt. … Nigeria outrebounded the U.S. 46-34.

USA: Darius Garland and Saddiq Bey were Select Team players who got into the game. The Olympic team needed extra players because Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday and Devin Booker are at the NBA Finals. … The U.S. got 32 free-throw attempts to Nigeria's 10.

CBC

Nneka, Chiney, Erica Ogwumike, all listed on Nigeria's provisional roster, could play in Olympics together

Sisters Nneka, Chiney and Erica Ogwumike are listed on the provisional roster for Nigeria's women's basketball team, the country's federation announced Tuesday on Twitter. It's possible they all could make the 12-player roster for Nigeria in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, although Nneka and Chiney are still awaiting official FIBA clearance.

"It's something I know my family would be very proud of," Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN Tuesday. "For it to happen would be such a blessing. To be able to do something big for a big part of our heritage would be fantastic. I'm hoping it will contribute to the growth we're experiencing for Africa in basketball."

Nneka, the 2016 WNBA MVP, and Chiney both are Stanford grads who were the WNBA's No. 1 draft picks in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and now play for the Los Angeles Sparks. Erica Ogwumike played as a freshman for Pepperdine and then spent the rest of her college career at Rice. She was drafted into the WNBA in 2020 but did not make a roster.

Eldest sister Nneka, 31, is a longtime member of the U.S. senior national team, winning gold medals with the American squad in 2014 and 2018 at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. But she was left off the U.S. roster for the Tokyo Games, which was announced June 21, surprising many and causing some controversy. She is the only MVP in WNBA history who has not made an Olympic squad, but that could change with FIBA's approval.

"It was more of a hurt than a shock, because I had experienced it before," Nneka said of also not being named to the U.S. Olympic team in 2012 and 2016. "But there are decisions made in this life that you can't control. I allowed myself to feel the hurt, but moving on, I decided, 'I'm going to try to put matters in my own hands."

Nneka contacted USA Basketball and told them she was interested in pursuing a chance to play with Nigeria. The Ogwumikes' parents, Peter and Ify, were both born in Nigeria and immigrated to the United States, where their daughters were born. The Ogwumike sisters have dual citizenship with the United States and Nigeria.

USA Basketball has released both Nneka and Chiney, which was required since both previously have competed for the United States in FIBA-sanctioned events. Generally, if players have done that after having reached their 17th birthday, they are not allowed to play for another country in a FIBA event. However, according to FIBA's regulations on player eligibility, the organization's secretary general may authorize a player to compete for the national team of his or her country of origin if this is in the interest of the growth of basketball in that country.

One of FIBA's pillars of emphasis currently is the growth of women's basketball worldwide, which could favor the decision for Nneka and Chiney getting to play for Nigeria. Erica Ogwumike committed to the Nigerian team last year; she had not played for Team USA in a FIBA-sanctioned event. Chiney Ogwumike began looking into the possibility of representing Nigeria about two months ago.

"The running joke was who was the family going to root for, because I was planning on playing against Erica," Nneka said of thinking she would be on Team USA. "But, you know, life unfolds in some beautiful ways: To be able to possibly share the highest athletic honor with not only Chiney, but my youngest sister."

Nneka has not been critical of USA Basketball, but said that when she didn't make the U.S. team, she did not want to wait on the possibility of perhaps being called on as an alternate U.S. player if someone was hurt between now and the Tokyo Games. She's been in that position before and said she doesn't see herself as a "second choice."

"I just wanted to bet on myself and also be a part of an organization that prioritizes me," she said of her hopes to play for Team Nigeria now. "My perspective was like, 'If it's not impossible, I'm going to go for it.' Because I believe I have Olympic status and I plan on being an Olympian."

Nneka said she wanted to be fully open with the Nigerian federation and USA Basketball about her hopes.

"I didn't want it to be secretive," she said. "It was something that I wanted to do, and I would hope that they understood. And they did. In these moments, being transparent, I think, is most important."

Along with FIBA clearance -- the Ogwumikes are not sure when a final decision will be made on that -- and being named to the Nigerian team, both Nneka and Chiney also have to be healthy. They have been sidelined with knee injuries; Nneka last played for the Sparks on June 1, and Chiney on May 28. At this point, both anticipate being able to play in Tokyo if they are on the team. Nigeria is scheduled to face the United States in an exhibition on July 18 at Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Not long after, the Nigerian team is expected to be named.

"The way I feel now, I think I would be ready," Nneka said of playing in that exhibition game. "But if I'm not, I'll be ready for Tokyo if I'm able to get through the clearance process. The plan from the beginning (of her injury recovery) was for me to be ready for the Olympics."

Nigeria is in Group B at the Tokyo Games, along with the United States, Japan and France. Another current WNBA player who previously played for USA Basketball, Atlanta's Elizabeth Williams, is on the Nigerian provisional roster, too, and went through a similar process to what Nneka and Chiney are now.

Williams played collegiately for Duke; current Blue Devil senior Elizabeth Balogun, who transferred from Louisville, is also on the roster, as is another former Blue Devil, Oderah Chidom.

In fact, all the players on Nigeria's provisional roster played collegiately in the United States, including Adaora Elonu, who won a national championship with Texas A&M in 2011.

"The last few years, I've had the experience of playing against Team Nigeria and seen the rise of it," Nneka said. "It fills me with a lot of pride. To be able to possibly have the opportunity to contribute, that's what I want to do."

ESPN

Video - Challenging conditions hamper Nigerian medal hopefuls

Nigeria para-athletes have put the disappointment of the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics behind them and are now focused on showcasing their talent in Japan next year if everything goes according to plan. However, they are preparing for the Games under challenging conditions as CGTN's Deji Badmus reports.

Nigeria to have bobsled team at the winter olympics for the first time ever

Nigeria's women's bobsled team has qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The three-member team — which was only formed in 2016 — is the first to represent Nigeria at the winter event, to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February next year.

Driver Seun Adigun, brakemen Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omega, qualified for the event over five races held in Utah, Whistler and Calgary.

In 2012, Adigun competed in the women's 100 metre hurdles at the summer Olympics.

She told ESPN that the qualification is a "huge milestone for sports in Nigeria".

Adigun hopes that the bobsled team will help create opportunities for winter sports to take place in Nigeria.

Adigun started a Go Fund Me campaign late last year to raise $US75,000 to fund their Olympic bid, which they achieved in 11 months.

President of the Bobsled and Skeleton Federation of Nigeria, Solomon Ogba, said in a statement he hopes Nigerians can appreciate the effort the team has put in, "the work, the discipline, and the personal sacrifices."

Mr Ogba he was proud the team was representing their country in "a very technical and high risk sport".

Another Nigerian competitor, Simidele Adeagbo, is just two races away from qualifying for the Skeleton competition.

ABC