It’s been over a week since the Rio Olympic Games commenced in Brazil, with various individuals and countries churning out impressive and record breaking performances.
Team Nigeria has also achieved some of these record breaking performances in various sports such as Table Tennis and Rowing.
Hopefully, this trend will continue in Weightlifting, when Nigeria’s sole representative at the Games, Mariam Usman begins her quest at winning the country’s second medal in the sport, in the history of the Olympics on Sunday, August 14th.
So who is Mariam Usman?
Mariam Usman has been the most consistent weightlifter in the country, competing in the women’s Heavyweight division (+75kg). She has won several medals within and without the continent from the All African Games to the African Championships, and the Commonwealth Games as well.
Usman has also made appearances at the Olympics right from her debut in Beijing 2008, where she finished 5th lifting a total of 265kg, to London 2012 where she bowed out lifting 156kg.
Usman qualified for Rio after her brilliant performance at the Olympic Trials in Yaoundé, Cameroun in May, where was the only Nigerian weightlifter that amassed the necessary points to book a spot for the Games.
The trials showed the country’s poor preparations for Rio, as the Nigerian lifters did not participate in many qualifiers that would have secured points to make an appearance at the Olympics.
The lifter has the pressure of lifting not just her weight, but the country as well, and will be hoping that the exposure at previous Olympic and Continental Championships, along with her build up training, is enough to get her hands on a medal.
Day of Event: Sunday, August 14th
Time: 7:30pm and 11:00pm
Live Channel: SuperSport (SS7N, SS7A)
Do You Know:
The first and only time Nigeria won a medal in the Weightlifting event was at Sydney 2000, where Ruth Ogbeifo won a Silver medal in the 75kg weight class, with 245.0kg in total?
