The much anticipated Paris Olympic Games will officially get underway today, July 26, in a gorgeous spectacle, with the opening ceremony taking place on the legendary Seine River, which flows through the French capital and into the English Channel.
This is the first time in history an Olympics opening ceremony is taking place outside a stadium, and it is a move that honors the City of Light and the waterway that runs through it.
Because of its unique setting, the Paris opening ceremony will also be the biggest in the history of the Games, with a setup that allows anyone to walk up to the river and view the display, while each national committee will have a boat that floats across the nearly four-mile route, beginning at the Austerlitz Bridge and reaching their finish at the Trocadéro, across from the Eiffel Tower, home to the Trocadéro Palace. This final site will host a series of performances and more on Friday.
A whopping 10,714 athletes from 206 nations, Nigeria inclusive, are set to compete for honours in 21 days of stiff but healthy competition. Team Nigeria is presenting a strong team of 88 athletes in 12 sports of which women take the biggest chunk of 62 athletes and 26 men.
Nigeria, since made its debut in Helsinki 1952, its athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, except for Montreal 1976 as part of the Congolese-led boycott.
Building on their robust record of being regular participants in Summer Olympics, Team Nigeria is aiming to end the country’s 24-year search for Olympic gold at the Paris 2024 Games.
Nigeria’s last Olympics gold medal was won at the Sydney 2000 Games where the country’s 4x400m men’s team won a silver which was later converted gold by the IOC after the disqualification of the U.S. team for fielding a drug offender in the final race.
Since then, the country has not repeated the feat they first achieved at the Atlanta 1996 Games when Chioma Ajunwa and the men’s football team gave the country two gold medals. Nigeria’s minister of sports development, Senator John Owan-Enoh, believes that Team Nigeria to the Paris Olympics will surpass the 1996 Atlanta Games feats. But, the question Nigerians would like to ask the Sports Minister is how prepared are our athletes for the Paris Games?
LEADERSHIP Sports recall that In 1996, against all odds, Team Nigeria recorded two gold medals, one individual gold from women’s Long Jump and the second from the football team, the Dream Team. The individual gold, the first in Nigeria’s history was from Chioma Ajunwa while the football gold, also the country’s and in fact Africa’s first in Olympics football gold was from a mixture of players from the heroic 1994 World Cup Super Eagles and the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Cup champions headed by Kanu Nwankwo as a captain.
The feats recorded by Ajunwa and Dream Team, however, were not as a result of any serious planning by either the Sports Ministry or NOC, but to the resilience of the athletes to write their names in Olympics’ history. Maybe, it is on this premise that the sports minister, John Owan-Enoh believes Team Nigeria to Paris Games will surpass the 1996 Atlanta feats.
No doubt, Team Nigeria’s contingent to Paris have strong medal prospects, with several contenders set to make a significant impact and rewrite the history of Nigeria’s participation at the quadrennial multi-sports fiesta.
Leading the Team Nigeria medal charge is the world record holder in the 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan. Her exceptional form makes her a strong contender for gold and a potential successor to Chioma Ajunwa as Nigeria’s Olympic gold medalist.
Long jumper Ese Brume is another athlete to watch as the Commonwealth champion and African record holder aims to emulate the feat of Chioma Ajunwa by securing gold in her event. She currently holds the commonwealth games record, African junior record and African record in the event. Brume won the bronze medal in the Long Jump event at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, with a jump of 6.91 m and at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, with a jump of 6.97m, and she will be aiming to make it gold in Paris.
In wrestling, Blessing Oborududu, a silver medalist at Tokyo 2020, will be looking to improve on her performance, while Odunayo Adekuoroye, known for her energetic style, will also be aiming for a podium finish, with multiple Commonwealth and African titles to her name, she is a formidable force in her weight category.
Shot putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, the African champion, is a strong medal prospect for Nigeria, while the young and talented Favour Ashe has shown immense promise with a recent personal best of 9.94s in the 100m.
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