Paris 2024 Olympics: Athletics team returns without a medal for the 10th time in 16 appearances

Team Nigeria track and field team has finished without a medal for the third time in four straight Olympics and 10th over all in 16 appearances since 1956 in Melbourne, Australia where Nigeria first presented a track and field team.

The country’s track and field team did not make the podium in five straight Olympics after the no show in 1956 viz 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1980.

It was not until 1984 that Nigeria won her first medal in track and medal and made an appearance on the medal table via the men’s 4x400m relay team that won a bronze medal.

It was another no show in 1988, but the country returned to the track and field podium in 1992 with two medals, a men’s 4x100m silver and the women’s 4x100m bronze.

Four years later, the track and field team produced their best performance ever, winning a first ever and so far, only individual gold medal courtesy Chioma Ajunwa in the long jump.

Falilat Ogunkoya also made history as the first to win an individual medal when she ran a still subsisting 49.10 African record to win a bronze medal in the 400m before anchoring the women’s 4x400m relay team to a silver medal finish.

Ogunkoya remains the only track and field athlete to win two medals at the same edition of the Games.

Mary Onyali was not left out of the party, literarily diving to win a bronze medal in the 200m.

Another gold came via the men’s 4x400m four years later in Sydney when Sunday Bada led the team to finish second behind the USA team but was later upgraded to gold after one of the American athletes who ran in the race was busted for spiking his system with performance enhancing drugs.

Glory Alozie added a silver medal in the 100m hurdles as Nigeria made it to the track and field medal table for the third straight Olympics.

It became four, four years later courtesy a pair of bronze in the men’s 4x100m and 4x400m relays.

Blessing Okagbare and the women’s 4x100m relay team made it five straight Olympics in Beijing, China in 2008. Then came the break.

Nigeria’s track and field team returned to the winless era at the Olympics as they failed to get to the track and field podium first in 2012 and later 2016.

Nigeria was back on the podium in 2020 (2021) courtesy an Ese Brume’s long jump bronze in Tokyo.

Culled from Complete Sports