By Wisdom Deji-Folutile
For Nigerians, upholding the international reputation of national sports has been the responsibility of the country’s finest athletes.
A country of over 200 million citizens, Nigeria is notably recognised as a home to some of the most passionate sports lovers worldwide. A defining characteristic for most persons living in the most populous black nation on earth has long been their appreciation for sports, adept knowledge of sports history, and a keen interest in sports competitions. The country every year infuses billions into the sports ministry, for the sake of nurturing new talent and lifting the standing of the country to new heights.
The investments have mostly delivered, to varying, polarising degrees. However, the dominance of men’s sports was undebatable as many of the now-existing structures for female representation in the country’s sports affairs were in their incubatory stages.
Nevertheless, gender politics has never been an issue of contention for Nigerians regarding sports, as the nation’s famous countrymen never failed to infuse millions of sports lovers with a sense of pride when they had the opportunity.
Various moments had defined the upward trajectory of national sports, and the faces that heralded our greatest memories of triumph were largely male. This is including but is not limited to, the victory of Africa’s first football Olympics gold medal, won by the Atlanta ’96 Olympics heroes—an image now burned in the memory of all Nigerians, young or old. Another famous moment of triumph was the gold medal won by the men’s 4 x 400-meter relay at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
However, this dominance of our men’s teams in our competitive nation has been upended in the last 20 years, and a new era of female dominance seems to be on the cards.
The culminated showing of the shifting tides occurred when Team Nigeria featured in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games concluded in August. The country’s impressive haul of 12 gold medals was lugged home by female representatives.
-Advertisement-
Emerging track superstar Tobi Amusan, in imperious form, had crossed the finish line in 12.30 seconds in the final of the women’s 100-meter hurdles to set a CWG record.
Long Jump specialist Ese Brume registered a record-setting 7-meter leap. A quartet of Amusan, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, and Grace Nwokocha cruised to gold in the CWG, with their 42.10-second-performance registering as a new African record.
Lifters Adijat Olarinoye, Rafiatu Lawal, and Alice Oluwafemilayo also set new CWG records in their respective categories.
Out of the country’s total haul of 35 medals at the Games, 27 were picked up by female athletes.
However, the triumph of women’s sports in Birmingham was just another brushstroke painting a consistent tone of female domination in Nigerian sports over the last 20 years.
D’Tigress Dominance
In September 2021, Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, completed a historic hattrick of victories by winning the Afrobasket Championship for the third consecutive time.
Team Nigeria comprehensively defeated the other favourites, Mali, in a 70-59 showdown, and in the process qualified for the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Australia.
Despite the debacle of harrowing troubles plaguing the team off-court (including unpaid salaries), the team pulled themselves together to win their fifth AfroBasket title in the last 20 years.
In contrast, the male Basketball team’s last (and solitary) AfroBasket triumph came in 2015.
Super Falcons dominate African Football
The Super Falcons won the African cup of nations in 2014, 2016, and 2018, but failed to secure a podium finish in the 2022 edition, finishing fourth. However, this was their first fourth-place finish in 20 years. Nigeria’s female national team remains the most successful team in WAFCON history, with 11 titles, and has only lost out three times in the history of the competition—once to South Africa, and twice to Equatorial Guinea.
Howbeit a more competitive competition with a longer history, The performance of the men’s national football team representing Nigeria has paled in comparison to their female counterparts.
In the last 20 years, Nigeria’s men’s team have only managed to win the title once—in 2013. However, the team have managed to accumulate 8 bronze medals, falling agonisingly short of a victory on multiple occasions. In the latest instalment of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Nigeria fell in the Round of 16 to Tunisia after recording a 100 percent victory record in the group stages. The defeat extended the country’s title drought in the continental competition.
Also notably absent from the 2022 World Cup is Nigeria’s senior men’s team, who fell against Ghana in the World Cup Qualifiers in March.
Although the heroics of the male representatives are well documented, of the 13 medals that Nigeria has fished up in the Olympics since 2000, 7 have been retrieved by the country’s female representatives. In the latest instalment of the Olympics (Tokyo 2020) Team Nigeria came home with an abysmal 2 meal-haul—one silver, one bronze. Both came from female representatives (Blessing Oborududu in Women’s freestyle 68 kg, and Ese Brume in the Women’s long jump).
The next generation of Nigerian superstars
Although the country has been ably-represented in times past by legends like Nwankwo Kanu, Jay-Jay Okocha, and Mikel Obi, Nigeria’s next generation of global superstars is looking to be dominated by the female company. Already, Blessing Okagbare emerged as an international force in the mid-2010s and sustained her dominance until the end of the decade. She is an Olympic and World Championships medalist in the long jump and a world medalist in the 200 meters. Okagbare also holds the Women’s 100 meters Commonwealth Games record for the fastest time at 10.85 seconds. Unfortunately, Blessing’s dominance seems to have ground to a halt as the Nigerian is currently serving an 11-year ban for breaching multiple World Athletics anti-doping rules.
Another Nigerian sports athlete making waves is football superstar Asisat Oshoala, who picked up a Ballon d’Or nomination in August.
Asisat has been a force to reckon with in world football since she came on the international radar with the national team in 2014, where she was the highest goal scorer and player of the tournament in the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
The 27-year-old has since established herself as one of the best strikers around and is already getting included in conversations concerning the best African female footballers of all time.
Oshoala, who has featured for English clubs Arsenal and Liverpool in the past, moved to Barcelona in 2019 on loan and has since become a household name for most Nigerians. She was the first African (and Nigerian) player to score a goal in a UEFA Women’s Champions League final. On 16 May 2021, she became the first African woman to win the UEFA Champions League as Barcelona defeated Chelsea 4–0 in the finals. In the just concluded 2021/2022 season, Asisat won the Pichichi, which is awarded to the highest goal scorer in the Spanish top-flight. She became the first Nigerian (and African) woman to do so. In August 2022, she was named on a 20-woman list of nominees for the 2022 Women’s Ballon d’Or, becoming the first Nigerian (and African) woman to achieve the feat.
For comparison, the last Nigerian to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or was Nwankwo Kanu, whose nominations came in 1996 and 1999.
Asisat Oshoala also won her fifth CAF African Women’s Footballer of the Year award, becoming the first, male or female, to win the award five times.
Tobi Amusan is another rising superstar in track athletics. She is the current African, Commonwealth, and World Champion in the 100m hurdles as well as the record holder in the three competitions.
Amusan became the first Nigerian world champion in an athletics event when she won the 2022 World Athletics Championships 100 metres hurdles gold medal, setting a new world record of 12.12 seconds in the semifinal, followed up by a wind-assisted 12.06 seconds in the final to take the gold medal. The 25-year-old also won back-to-back African and commonwealth titles in 2018 and 2022 in the 100m hurdles and is also a two-time African Games champion in the event. In 2021, she became the first Nigerian to win the 100m hurdles at the Diamond League in Zurich. She also broke Glory Alozie’s longstanding African record in the process.
We do everything possible to supply quality news and information to all our valuable readers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this.
Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.
-Advertisement-
-Want to get the news as it breaks?-
