Niger at the 2012 Summer Olympics
| Niger at the 2012 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | NIG | ||||||||
| NOC | Nigerien Olympic and National Sports Committee | ||||||||
| in London | |||||||||
| Competitors | 6 in 5 sports | ||||||||
| Flag bearer | Moustapha Hima | ||||||||
| Medals |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Niger with six athletes sent in five sports, competed at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's eleventh appearance at the Olympics, having competed at every Summer Olympics since 1964 with the exception of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the African and the United States boycotts.
Nigerien Olympic and National Sports Committee (French: Comité Olympique et Sportif National du Niger, COSNI) sent the nation's largest delegation to the Games since 1988. A total of 6 athletes, 4 men and 2 women, competed in 5 different sports.Hamadou Djibo Issaka, became the first Nigerien rower to compete at the Olympics, was the oldest member of the team, at age 35; while freestyle swimmer Nafissatou Moussa Adamou was the youngest at age 14. Welterweight boxer Moustapha Hima, on the other hand, was appointed by COSNI to be the nation's flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
Niger, however, failed to win a single Olympic medal in London, since its last time at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
On 28 July, the British press received single sculls rower Hamadou Djibo Issaka a wave of attention, as he finished farther behind his competitors. Having taken up rowing at an intensive training camp three months before, the press compared him with Eric "the Eel" Moussambani, a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney; thus, Issaka was featured in numerous headlines where the press called him, "Issaka the Otter", "Hamadou The Keel," and the "Sculling Sloth".
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