Nigeria at the 1992 Summer Paralympics
| Nigeria at the 1992 Summer Paralympics |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||
| IPC code | NGR | ||||||||
| NPC | Nigeria Paralympic Committee | ||||||||
| in Barcelona | |||||||||
| Competitors | 6 | ||||||||
|
Medals Ranked 33rd |
|
||||||||
| Summer Paralympics appearances | |||||||||
Nigeria competed at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona, Spain, making their Paralympic debut. 6 competitors from Nigeria won 3 medals, all gold, and so finished 33rd the medal table. They competed in athletics, table tennis and powerlifting. Adeoye Ajibola was the country's big success story of these Games, going on to represent Nigeria in non-disability athletics and coming within a second of the men's non-disability 100m world record. Monday Emoghawve was the country's other gold medal winner in Barcelona, claiming gold in men's powerlifting.
In many parts of Black Africa, people who have disabilities that include insanity, and physical disabilities such as impairments and deformities often face cultural barriers to participation because of attitudes related to their disabilities. These include beliefs that they acquired their disabilities because their parents were witches or they are wizards. Their disability is often seen as a result of a personal failing on their part. As such, there is often tremendous cultural pressure for people with physical disabilities to remain hidden and out of the public eye. In many places, they are perceived to be monsters in need of healing. This is the context to which Nigerian Paralympians engage both society and sport internally, in their own country.
The 1992 Games were Nigeria's debut Games. The country sent a six sportspeople strong delegation to Barcelona. All members of the team were men. The team included athletics competitor Adeoye Ajibola, powerlifters Monday Emoghawve and Patrick Akutaekwe, table tennis players Aden Bamgbose, Nasiru Sule, Ibrahim Murtala and Segun Toriola.
Nigeria won three gold medals at the 1992 Summer Paralympics.
Adeoye Ajibola won two gold medals in sprint events. Ajibola posted a DNS in heat 1 of the Men's 100 m TS4 event, before going on to the final where he set a world record time of 10.72 seconds to finish first. A single-arm amputee, when his time is corrected for his disability, it would have been 10.05 seconds. Assuming he had no disability, his time would have given him a fourth place finish at the 1992 Summer Olympics. His time would be a little more than a second slower than the record for the men's non-disability 100m, which was 9.84 seconds and set by Canadian Donavan Bailey at the 1996 Summer Olympics. In semi-final of heat 1 of the Men's 200 m TS4 event, he posted a world record time of 22.18 seconds in finishing first. In the final, he bettered his own just set world record, posting a time of 21.83 seconds to claim his second gold. Ajibola would later go on to represent Nigeria in able-bodied competition.
...
Wikipedia