The first Olympic medalist of Nigeria, Nojim Maiyegun, died on Monday. He was 85. Nojim Maiyegun created history when he won a bronze medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in boxing.
Maiyegun secured Nigeria’s first Olympic boxing medal at the age of 23.
He also won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966.
He had relocated to Vienna, Austria, where he resided for the rest of his life. Nojim Maiyegun was born on February 17, 1941, in Lagos State.
First Olympic Medalist of Nigeria, Nojim Maiyegun, Passes Away
Nojim Maiyegun had not been well for the last few months and had been in and out of the hospital for the past six months.
Sources confirmed his death due to natural causes.
Nojim had lost his sight for several years, and his condition deteriorated before his death.
His death has been confirmed by one of his acquaintances, Stephen Ogboh, who was also from Nigeria and was living in Austria.
The news was also confirmed by Rudolfine F. Soultan, a close confidant, in a Facebook post late on Monday.
“My Jimmy died. I can’t say more about this right now because it’s just horrible. The day after tomorrow, we would have been together for 17 years.”
Nojim Maiyegun won Nigeria’s first-ever Olympic medal on August 10, 1964, at the Tokyo Olympics, and the 60th anniversary of his historic feat was celebrated a few days ago.
Nojim Maiyegun won the bronze medal in the light middleweight category and shared it with Poland’s Józef Grzesiak after both boxers lost in the semifinals.
At the Olympics, it was customary to award both semifinal losers with bronze medals as there is no third-place bout.
In the Tokyo Olympics, he had defeated Great Britain’s William Robinson in just one minute and 59 seconds during the second round.
He also won against Denmark’s Tom Bogs in the quarter-finals but was defeated by France’s Joseph Gonzalez in the semi-finals.
Nojim Maiyegun’s triumph ended the 12-year medal drought at the Olympics, following the country’s first appearance at the Helsinki 1952 Games.
Nojim’s performance and medal win prompted other Nigerian boxers to take up the sport in a big way, and Nigeria went on to win three silver medals and two more bronze medals in subsequent editions of the Games.
Nojim Maiyegun’s demise has been deeply mourned by the sporting fraternity, and his legacy remains an enduring source of pride to the nation.
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