Olympics
Nigeria’s Opeyori out to end Africa’s Olympic badminton jinx
BY ISAIAH AKINREMI, BBC SPORT AFRICA
As African badminton champion Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori prepares to make Olympic history for the continent in Paris, the Nigerian can take heart from knowing that he has regularly defied the odds.
For despite being born in an informal settlement in Nigeria’s biggest city Lagos, the 27-year-old has risen up to win four continental singles titles, more than any African man before.
What makes the feat all the more impressive is that he lives in a country without one badminton-designated facility, but nonetheless he is now hoping to become the first African to progress in the Olympic men’s singles competition.
“My target is to get to the quarter-final because once I’m able to win one game, I believe that will be a big upset for everyone and I should be able to achieve more than that,” Opeyori told BBC Sport Africa.
Not once since badminton became an Olympic sport in 1992 has an African man ever reached the next round, even if South Africa’s Jacob Maliekal did manage to win a game in the group stages of the 2016 Games when he beat a Ukrainian opponent only to fail to make the next phase.
Meanwhile, the continent’s record is marginally better in the women’s game where Hadia Hosny of Egupt knocked out a Mexican opponent in 2008 to actually reach the second round – the one and only time an African has achieved this in Olympic badminton singles history.
Despite the weight of history, Opeyori – who has won Africa’s last three singles titles as well as the African Games title earlier this year – is approaching the 2024 Games in confident mood.
“Technically-speaking, I’m not under pressure because I’ll be facing people that are very good. So they should be the ones under pressure because I’m coming for them. So it is a battle that I am taking to them.”
‘Breaking African jinx’
Opeyori’s journey to the top of African badminton started in unexpected fashion – since he was actually playing Nigeria’s favourite sport at the time.
Anuoluwapo Opeyori (left) alongside Godwin Olofua played in the men’s doubles of the 2020 Tokyo games
“I was playing football with my friends when the coach saw us,” he explained as he walked around the Rowe Park sport complex, where his journey began, in Lagos.
“I think he had very good insight because we were just normal kids playing football. But he introduced the game to us and immediately that he gave me the racket, I bonded with it.”
Despite having neither a racket nor shoes, with Opeyori borrowing both, a love had been born yet any hopes of rapid progress were further stymied by the limited badminton facilities in Africa’s most populous nation.
“It will amaze you to know that in Nigeria, we don’t have a single badminton facility – not one,” Francis Orbih, the president of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria, told BBC Sport Africa.
“In most public places, what you have is a multi-purpose hall – so that’s table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, boxing, basketball, handball etc. in just one hall. So when basketball has a two-week programme, badminton can’t train and that is a huge drawback.”
It was a trip to Asia in 2018 that changed Opeyori’s career, says Orbih.
For the year after attending a two-month training camp in Indonesia, a country that boasts eight Olympic badminton golds (and 21 overall), Opeyori won the first of his record four African men’s singles titles.
Having won the last three on offer, the African champion is now tipped to make his continent proud at the Olympics.
“If anyone is going to be able to break the jinx, it’s him – he has the capacity to do it,” says Orbih.
“He is disciplined, hardworking and passionate about the game, and that is what has brought him to where he is and kept him there.”
Before he stepped onto the badminton court in a moment that changed his life, Opeyori had been conducting menial jobs near his Lagos home, such as bricklaying, just to get by.
He was also supported by the money raised from selling provisions by his mother Funke, who was delighted by his proposed career change.
“When he told me he wanted to play badminton, he was not aware that I used to play the sport,” Funke, a former amateur player, told BBC Sport Africa.
“Anytime he travels for competition, I am always happy and support him by fasting and praying because I am excited my son is so fortunate.”
“It means badminton run in the blood,” said Opeyori.
In fact, his career has become a family affair after his elder brother Funsho set aside his own badminton abilities nearly a decade ago to both train and fund his sibling.
“I gave up my dream because I saw good potential in him,” said Funsho.
“I’m excited because he is African number one and I’m very confident that he is going to break the jinx at the Olympics.”
Opeyori played at the last Olympics in the doubles, suffering a first-round exit, and will be one of just two African men in the badminton singles, along with Georges Julien Paul of Mauritius.
Meanwhile, fellow Mauritian Kate Foo Kune, who has also previously won a round-robin game at the Olympics but no more, will contest the women’s singles as will South Africa’s Johanita Scholtz.
Nonetheless, the traditional Asian dominance of the sport – combined with the challenges faced by Africa’s best players – means that achieving net gains in Paris is going to be an uphill task, one which Opeyori is relishing.
“I’m coming with good confidence and making the nation proud is my aspiration – and the whole of Africa also.”
Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori will begin his quest to make history at the Paris 2024 Olympics in Group N against Li Shi Feng (China) and Tobias Kunezi (Switzerland) in the group stage.
-BBC
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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