Olympics
‘No retirement yet’, yells seven-time Olympian, Funke Oshonaike
According to BBC, Nigerian table tennis player Funke Oshonaike remains proud of her efforts in Tokyo as she became the first African woman to compete at seven Olympics.
She also became the first female table tennis player to appear at seven Olympics and while she has ruled out an eighth Games she is not retiring just yet.
The 45-year-old exited Tokyo at the preliminary stage on Saturday as she was beaten by Liu Juan of the United States at the delayed Games.
“Overall, I think I’ve done exceedingly well at these Olympics. To get another opportunity to represent my country at the Olympics is special and I can only just stay proud,” she told BBC Sport Africa.
“I may have lost early but I have to count my blessings, to attain a seventh Olympics as the first woman from Africa to do so is a remarkable thing for my career.
“Just think of it by multiplying four years by seven, then to be a part of this unbelievably special Olympics in Tokyo.
“Being the first African, first woman in Table Tennis to do it seven times, puts everything into proper perspective for me, so I have to be grateful.”
Oshonaike first started playing table tennis at the age of 14, and just two years later she was part of Nigeria’s team for the 1991 All Africa Games.
She made her Olympic debut in Atlanta in 1996. She then went on to play at the 2000 Sydney Games, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.
Inspired at Rio
The 25-time Nigerian table tennis champion has now equalled the record of compatriot Segun Toriola as the only Africans with seven Olympic appearances.
It was at the previous Games in South America, where she was Team Nigeria’s flag-bearer, that she decided to aim for a seventh appearance and join the exclusive table tennis club of seven, comprising of male players.
As well as Toriola the others to compete in table tennis at seven Olympics are: Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive, Croatia’s Zoran Primorac and Sweden’s Jorgen Persson.
“I was motivated and pushed when I saw my compatriot Segun Toriola at the Rio Games being honoured and I realised this a table of men,” she added.
“I said to myself that there are only men in this club, it’s all I needed to change my mindset and stay in shape to attain same landmark.
“I endured a challenging five years mentally, physically and emotionally, all of this when I still had to deal with qualification for the Tokyo Games.
“After qualification, the coronavirus pandemic happened and then doubts started creeping in, I said probably it was not meant to be, then the cancelation happened.
“But here we are, a tough journey and I can finally say that I have completed the Olympics circle in a special way and at a special Games in Tokyo.”
The future
After 30 years competing at the highest level, becoming an 11-time All African Games medallist and a three-time International Table Tennis Federation Africa Senior Championships winner, Oshonaike admitted she has given her all to the Olympics.
“I guess the next time you see me at the Olympics, I’ll probably be an official or watching as a spectator because I am done,” she explain to the BBC.
“The Olympic Games has been good to me. But now I need to focus on helping the younger ones attain their dream. I will keep playing and giving my best.
“I will be the first to walk away if I can no longer keep up the pace or give my best on the table.”
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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