By Chisom Muojindu
The Paris 2024 Summer Games have come to an end, but the headline acts were not the able bodied Nigerian Olympic athletes, but the Paralympians who won seven medals. While the Olympics held from July 26 to August 11; the Paralympics held from August 28 to September 8.
On Saturday, September 15, Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, received the country’s Paralympians at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in recognition of their outstanding performance at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
“Today, we celebrate not just the medals, but the spirit of resilience that defines our athletes and your names will be written in the annals of history as champions,” she said.
The First Lady, who is also the Grand Patron of Para-Sports in Africa, added, “I want to especially acknowledge Folashade Oluwafemiayo and Onyinyechi Mark—who both won gold in Para-powerlifting. Folashade’s incredible lift of 167kg not only broke her own world record, but also established her as a two-time Paralympic champion. You have raised the bar for para-athletes worldwide, and your victory stands as a beacon of hope for millions of Nigerians.”
Indeed, the Nigerian Paralympics contingent deserves all the accolades as they brought home a total of seven medals – two gold, three silver and two bronze – placing them at Number 40 on the medals table, just above Egypt and 4th in the entire continent, only behind Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Their performance was all the more impressive considering the disappointing performance by their able-bodied counterparts who did not win any medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In the Para-Table Tennis Singles Class 4 event, Isau Ogunkunle won the bronze medal for Nigeria in an impressive performance that saw him become the first Nigerian athlete to win an individual medal in Para-Table Tennis since the Sydney 2000 Games.
The signature event of the Paralympic games however was the Para-Powerlifting competition where Nigerian women dominated, winning four medals — two gold and two silver, and coming 4th overall in that event.
Also, Nigeria’s Team Captain, Folashade Oluwafemiayo, broke her world record in the women’s over 86kg Para-Powerlifting, becoming the first Para-athlete in history to lift 166kg, an improvement from her existing World Record of 165kg, thereby adding a gold medal to the total country record and securing two consecutive Paralympic competition victories since her last gold medal in Tokyo 2020.
Fellow Para-Powerlifting athletes, Esther Nworgu and Onyinyechi Mark both set new world records with Nworgu securing silver in the women’s up to 41kg event and setting two new world records, while Mark smashed her own world record with a breathtaking weight lift of 150kg to win Gold in the women’s Up to 61kg Para-Powerlifting event, the country’s first at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Most notable of mention is the country’s first Paralympic medal, won by Eniola Bolaji, who made history after defeating her Ukrainian opponent in straight sets of the Para-Badminton Singles FL3, making her the first African to win a medal in Badminton both at the Olympic or Paralympic Games.
In other sports, Flora Ugwunwa clinched the silver medal in the Women’s Javelin F54 event by throwing an impressive 19.26m and continuing a winning streak of three consecutive Paralympic medals – two golds (Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020) and now silver (Paris 2024).
The overall performance of these athletes at their respective competitions is a triumph of their grit, courage and unparalleled dedication, despite their physical disabilities in a country where most public infrastructure and facilities are not adequately designed with provisions for them. Furthermore, the tenuous circumstances that Nigerian athletes have to face, including Paralympians, such as the paucity of funds, little to no government support, inadequate sports facilities and resources, make their all-round performance at the Paralympics worthy of note.
One such instance is the report by ESPN Africa of Nigerian high jumper Amon Abraham Okechukwu who competed in the Paralympics men’s high jump T64 final, coming a distant sixth.
In the course of the competition, he recounted his experience of jumping over cars at the University of Port Harcourt in oil-rich Rivers State, for entertainment, and as means to garner donations, especially during training to challenge himself and silence those who said he couldn’t do it.
Public discourse on social media such as X (formerly Twitter) have revealed the growing discontent amongst Nigerians concerning the nonchalance and sometimes outright dereliction of duties of appointed sports officials. An example is the 88-man delegation sent to Paris 2024 Olympics, the largest in recent times consisting of more officials than athletes and yet reports abound of little to no physical presence of sports officials at games or even medal events alongside gross absence of the most basic of resources such as team photographers, amongst others for the competitors. Also, N12 billion was allocated for the Olympics games, with only one quarter of that amount designated for the Paralympians, further highlighting the gulf in performance compared to adequate funding.
For context, Nigerian athletes have participated in every edition of the Summer Olympic games since 1952 except Montreal 1976 due to the Congolese-led boycott of over 20 African countries. More importantly, Nigerian Paralympians have won medals at every Paralympics Games since their first outing in Barcelona 1992, in contrast to the Olympians who have returned without medals in eight Olympic games editions since their initial debut in 1952.
Similarly, the yawning gap in monetary allocations to foreign and home-based athletes has been a thorny issue, with foreign trained athletes receiving $5,000 and their home-based counterparts receiving $1,000, a difference of over 300 per cent.
Despite the challenges within the country’s sporting sector, the performance of the Paralympians demonstrates what can be achieved with adequate preparation and the right resources in place. It also shows that people with disabilities must be encouraged to pursue their passions despite their physical limitations, while society must do more to eradicate the abounding stereotypes that places a limit to their potential and talents, whether in sports or other endeavours.
“Sport will build you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Where there is disability, there is ability. I see it as strength,” noted Nigerian para-powerlifting silver medalist Esther Nworgu.
Indeed, the performance of the Paralympians speaks to the power of dreams, the audacity of hope and the ability to make the impossible possible through sheer hard work, determination and strength of will. Beyond a presidential honour, this is worthy of celebration by all.
