As the Paris 2024 Olympic Games goes underway, I believe Nigerians should watch out for two youngsters (wrestlers): Christianah Ogunsanya (53kg) and Esther Kolawole (62kg), both wrestlers.
Esther Kolawole, African Champion broke into the limelight after winning a gold medal at the 2017 National Youth Games in Ilorin, Kwara state, and afterward maintained her dominance from the junior to the senior category. Kolawole went on to win gold medals at the 2018 African Championship in Rivers State as well as the African Junior Championship in Algeria.
The Ondo-born wrestler graduated to the senior category, winning gold medals at the Governor Dickson Wrestling Championships in Bayelsa state which made her feature at various African Championships in the last four years. The current African Games Champion won a silver medal at the 2022 African Championship in Morocco before landing a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The 62kg women’s wrestler is making her debut at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
For Christianah Ogunsanya, she failed to feature at the 2017 National Youth Games due to the limited slot by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (organisers). Ogunsanya made the list to the 2018 African Junior Wrestling Championship with the likes of Esther Kolawole, Mercy Adekuoroye and Sunmisola Balogun where she won a gold medal.
The 53kg who is dominating the category once held by Odunayo Adekuoroye (World Silver medallist and 2x World Bronze medallist) stole the hearts of Nigerians with her performance at the African Senior Wrestling Championships (2021 and 2022), winning a gold medal at the 13th African Games in Ghana and further stealing the show at the Olympic Qualifiers in Morocco.
Despite not being fancied by the United World Wrestling (UWW) in their various categories, Esther Kolawole and Christianah Ogunsanya won bronze medals at the Pre-Olympic Games Tournament in Spain last month.
With the experiences gathered by these athletes, Nigeria should expect a surprise medal for any of these wrestlers in addition to the medal tally projected to be won by two of the most experienced wrestlers in the team.
Ogunsanya (53kg) is going into her Olympic Games bout as world number eight while Kolawole is ranked world number 10 in the women’s 62kg.
All the best to Team Nigeria Wrestlers.
