The death of Nigeria’s first medallist at the Olympic Games, Nojim Maiyegun, has been announced on Monday.
Information which came from several sources said Maiyegun, died of natural causes at the age of 85 in Vienna, Austria where he had been living for years.
Maiyegun, who was known to be virtually impaired for years, was reportedly frequenting the hospital in the past six months before his death which was also confirmed by another Nigerian, Stephen Ogboh who is an acquaintance of Pa Nojim in Austria.
Maiyegun died just a few days after the 60th anniversary of his feat, when he won a bronze medal in boxing on 10 August 1964 at the Olympics in Tokyo.
He shared the bronze medal with Józef Grzesiak of Poland in the Light middleweight category. The tradition at the Olympics is that the two losers in the semifinals are awarded the bronze medal, as there is no third-place bout.
It was the first time since Helsinki 1952 when Nigeria started participating in the Games that he won a medal, thus ending Nigeria’s 12-year winless streak at the Olympics.
Maiyegun was born on 17 February 1941 in Lagos and achieved a historic feat for Nigeria by winning a bronze medal in the men’s Light Middleweight (71 kg) category at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
He was Nigeria’s first Olympic medallist. Not much was heard of him until 2012 when his loss of vision was made public that year.
Source: Thisdaylive.com
