9. Nwanneka Okwelogu
Another athlete who recorded a successful season for both self and country is none other than Nwanneka Okwelogu, who incidentally is the first female and Field representative on our list.
Okwelogu kick-started her outstanding season when she won the Shot Put event at the Penn Relays back in April, throwing a distance of 17.16m. Few weeks later at the East Regional Championships, she won the event after throwing a Personal Best (PB) of 17.91m, which surpassed the Olympic qualifying mark, ensuring that she donned the green and white colors in Brazil.
Not resting on her oars, the Harvard University undergraduate made sure her second outing at the African Championships was a worthy one, recording a PB of 56.75m in the Discus throw, which won her the GOLD medal and also inspired a Nigeria clean sweep of the event. She also won the Silver medal in the Shot Put with a distance of 17.07m to stamp her name among Africa’s best female throwers.
The 21-year old continued with her winning streak at the Nigerian Trials, claiming the National titles in both the Discus (52.93m) and Shot Put (16.17m) events. Okwelogu finished 29th overall with her distance of 16.67m at her debut outing at the Olympics.
