Team Nigeria wraps up Paris Olympics without winning a medal

Team Nigeria has ended its participation at the 2024 Paris Olympics with zero medals. 

Nigeria’s participation in the competition was concluded on Saturday after Hannah Reuben lost her women’s 76kg freestyle wrestling.

She lost 5-2 to Mongolia’s Enkh-Amaryn Davaanasan in the round of 16 tie.

Team Nigeria had 88 athletes across 12 sports and could not secure any medals.

The outing was the country’s worst Olympics performance since London 2012.

It is also the eighth time Nigeria has returned from the Games with zero medals.

Some of the country’s biggest medal hopefuls failed to shine. Tobi Amusan did not make the final of women’s 100 meters hurdles despite being the world record holder. Ese Brume finished fifth in the women’s long jump, while Blessing Oborudlso ended her contest outside a polace.

In addition to the abysmal performance, the country also dealt with a handful of controversies at the Games.

The most prominent was the exclusion of Favour Ofili from the women’s 100 meters race despite the athlete qualifying. Another was the revelation by Ese Ukpeseraye that she had to borrow a track bike from the German team to perform in the Keirin cycling event.

It was not all doom for Nigeria; there were also a few sparks of brilliance. D’Tigress qualified for the quarter-final of women’s basketball at the Olympics for the first time. Ofili became the first Nigerian to make the women’s 200m final in 28 years, while Samuel Ogazi also broke a 38-year jinx by making the men’s 400m final.

Also, Nigeria had three athletes—Brume, Ruth Usoro, and Prestina Ochonogor—in the women’s long jump final.

The country will get another chance to show the world its wealth of sporting talent when the Olympics comes around in another four years in Los Angeles in 2028.