Nigeria’s First Olympic Medalist, Nojeem Maiyegun Dies In Austria

By Akinwale Kasali

The Nigeria Sporting enclave has been thrown into mourning following the demise of Nojeem Maiyegun. He was Nigeria’s first  Olympic Medalist. He achieved this feat in the Boxing event.

The death of the 80-year old retired pugilist was announced in a Facebook post by his confidante Rudolfine Soultan.

Soultan:”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”.

Maiyegun passed away Monday in his Vienna, Austria base.He became visually impaired a few years ago, and   battled an unnamed illness for months before his death.

Maiyegun won a bronze medal in the light-heavyweight boxing category at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics to break Nigeria’s medal jinx in the light-heavyweight boxing category.

Two years later, he won another bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.

Maiyegun left Nigeria in 1971 to begin a professional boxing career, fighting 16 times and winning 12, 10 of them by knockout.

The Ministry of Sports is yet to issue a statement on this development,  but netizens have taken to the Social Media to celebrate the icon that put the Nation on the Olympic map as a Medalist.