That Nigeria is a nation full of zealous sports lovers can no longer be questioned. To crown it all, Nigeria has produced a crop of talented sons and daughters who are sports athletes, and have shocked the world with outstanding performances. Here we present to you just 8 of the most outstanding Nigerian sports heroes of worthy mention. They are indeed too phenomenal to forget.
Chioma Ajunwa-Opara
This female policeman cum sports athlete by profession is one of the most thrilling success stories amongst Nigerian sports heroes till date. She is the only athlete to have ever excelled in two different categories of sports: athletics and soccer.
Chioma was originally an attacker in The Falcons football team, and the Nigerian Women’s Team. They represented Nigeria at the Women’s World Cup in 1991. Unfortunately she was constantly kept on the bench and made redundant by a coach. That made her leave football and venture into athletics.
Chioma competed in the long jump event at the1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, USA, and clinched the gold medal. She also took part in the 1989 African Championships, and 1991 All African Games, winning gold medals for long jump at both events.
But a controversy arose over a failed drug test in 1992 that earned her a 4-year ban from athletics, although she insisted she was innocent. And so again in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, she won yet another gold medal in the long jump category. These repeated victories finally sealed her place in the Nigerian hall of fame.
Tobi Amusan
Tobi Amusan is another phenomenon in the ace group of Nigerian sports heroes. She specializes in 100 meters track and field events, and as a sprinter. As of 2023 she is the champion and world record holder in the following three events:
100 meter hurdles at the African Championships (2015, 2019, 2022)
Commonwealth Championships (2018 & 2022)
World Athletics Championships (2022)
She also won two Diamond League gold medals in 2021, in the 100 meter hurdles category.
Kanu Nwankwo
Kanu Nwankwo was a former football forward who started with Iwuanyanwu Nationale club. He later joined the Nigerian national team. And the team won the cup for 1996 World Olympic games, as well as the FIFA U-17 World Cup of 1993.
This Nigerian sport hero went ahead to play for four European clubs (Ajax, Inter Milan, Arsenal, West Bromwich Albion and Portsmouth) from 1983 to 2012 before he retired. Kanu won the following medals and awards:
UEFA Champions League medal,
UEFA Cup medal
three FA Cup medals
two African Player of the Year awards,
just to mention a few of his achievements. Today, he is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Kanu is also an African brand ambassador for StarTimes cable TV, He owns an internet television company named Kanu Sports TV. Finally, he established the Kanu Heart Foundation in 2000 to treat children with heart diseases, following his own survival story from congenital heart disease.
Asisat Oshoala
Asisat is a female football striker currently playing for FC Barcelona Liga F club and the Nigerian National Women’s Team. The Nigerian Football team has won 3 African Championships from 2014 to 2018, while she is still part of the team.
She has won the African Women’s Footballer of the Year award a record 5 times, amongst other awards. The talented footballer has for long joined the Nigerian sports heroes club. She is noted to be one of the best African and world female footballers of all time.
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Lucy Ejike (nee Akhide)
Lucy is a weightlifter in wheechair (due to polio paralysis). This female Nigerian sports hero has won 3 gold medals in the Paralympic games of 2004, 2008 and 2016. She won another three gold medals in the World Championships of 2017, 2019 and 2021 respectively.
Today, she is a sports administrator in Enugu State.
Rashidi Yekini
Late Rashidi Yekini was a talented football forward while he was still alive. He played for 6 local Nigerian clubs and 7 international football clubs across 7 countries in total. His career spanned over 2 decades, during which he scored 37 goals for his foreign clubs.
He was a member of the Nigerian national team, and played in seven major tournaments. He was eventually awarded the 1993 African Footballer of the Year. He passed on in the year 2012.
Perpetua Nkwocha
Perpetua is a talented footballer and currently the coach of Clemensnas IF club in the Swedish Women’s Football League Division 2. She was also the former captain of the Nigerian National Women’s Football team. A clear member of the Nigerian sports heroes as we shall soon see.
She scored 65 goals while a player for the Sunnana SK football club from 2007 to 2014. She was the African Women Championships Top Goal Scorer for the years 2004, 2006 and 2010. She also won the African Women’s Footballer of the Year in 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011. Finally, she helped the Nigerian Women’s National Football team to win the African Women’s Championships 5 times between 2002 and 2014.
Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon as a Nigerian sports hero is unforgettable. The US-based basketball player played for the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors basketball clubs between the years 1984 and 2002 as a center. He and his team, Houston Rockets, won the National Basketball Association (NBA) Championships in 1994 and 1995.
Hakeem was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2008) as well as the FIBA Hall of Fame (2016). He is acknowledged to be one of the greatest center basketball players of all time.
