53 years of Nigeria’s giant strides in sports

No doubt, Nigeria has made its mark in global sports competition, going by her performance at FIFA World Cup, junior global football tournaments, Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, the All Africa Games and many other international sporting competitions.In total, Nigerian athletes have won a total of 23 medals, mostly in athletics and boxing in the […]

No doubt, Nigeria has made its mark in global sports competition, going by her performance at FIFA World Cup, junior global football tournaments, Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, the All Africa Games and many other international sporting competitions.
In total, Nigerian athletes have won a total of 23 medals, mostly in athletics and boxing in the 15 Olympic Games that they have participated in.
The country’s national soccer team, the Super Eagles, is adjudged the best in Africa and one of the best in the world.
Though a lot of organized sporting com petitions had taken place in the country, it was in 1962 that a central national body  for coordinating activities of sports associations, known as the National Sports Council was set up, while in 1971, the National Sports Commission to coordinate and integrate efforts to raise the standard of performance in sports in Nigeria.
The other mandates of the commission was to encourage the development, organization and participation of sports in Nigeria, to make any arrangements on behalf of the States’ Sports Councils for Competitions, technical assistance, recruitment of coaches and for any other matters as the Commission sees fit and to promote physical fitness and general well-being of all persons in Nigeria.
In terms of football, the Nigerian Football Federation was created in 1945. It was the first year that a competition was organized bringing together clubs from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar. The championship was also renamed the Challenge Cup replacing the Governor’s Cup as it had been known under their British colonizers. It was only several years later that the Challenge Cup became a national trophy when other top clubs from different provinces were invited to play. However, the clubs had to wait till 1990 for the professional league to be introduced.
Nigeria emerged on the international football scene in 1960 when it first entered for the qualifiers of the World Cup, but failed to pick the ticket for the finals.
The Nigerian National League began in 1972 when five teams entered the league. This grew to 12 teams by 1978.
Nigeria first participated at the Olympic Games in 1952, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then, except for the boycotted 1976 Summer Olympics. The nation has never participated in the Winter Olympic Games.
The NOC is one of 205 National Olympic Committees currently recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Nigeria won her first medal in international sports competition in 1954 when Emmanuel Ifeanjuna won a gold medal in the high jump at the Commonwealth games in Cardiff.
Nigeria won the first World Cup in the U-16 category in China in 1985 and came second in the same category two years later in Canada.
The Flying Eagles (U-20 team) won the bronze medal in the Junior World Cup competition in the Soviet Union in 1985 and the silver medal in Saudi Arabia in 1989. In the 1994 World Cup competition, Nigeria led its group to qualify for the second round.
The Super Eagles have also won the Africa Cup of Nations three times, attended four World Cup competitions and reached the second round during her first appearance at the global football event in 1994.
The nation’s U-23 football team also won gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia during which police woman Chioma Ajunwa also cinched gold medal in the women’s long jump event.
At the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia, Team Nigeria won a number of medals, including the silver medal in the men’s 4×100 metres, which was later promoted to gold after the Americans who won the gold were relieved of it for drug cheat.
In professional boxing, Nigeria has produced three world champions (Hogan “Kid” Bassey (featherweight, 1957-1959); Dick Tiger, (middleweight, 1962-1963) and Massachusetts resident, Bash Ali (cruiserweight, 1987). Nigeria’s athletes have also won Olympic medals in long jump, 400 x 4 relay and several other track and field events.
Dozens of Nigerians are today professional athletes in Europe and America. A Nigerian based in the US, Hakeem Olajuwon, is today roundly adjudged the best basketballer in the world.