Blessing Oborududu, a Nigerian freestyle wrestler ranked second in the world among women wrestlers, is also the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal at the Games. In addition to her ten-time African Championships from 2010 through 2020 she has been undefeated for three years and won five of her last six competitions.
Oborududu’s career
Oborududu was invited to compete in the National Camp after showing her impressive wrestling abilities during a school event. Her parents initially advised against her ambition and told her that wrestling is exclusively for boys.
Nigerian-Canadian wrestler Daniel Igali won three world championships, one Olympic silver medal and a gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
She competed in the 63kg freestyle category at the 2012 Summer Olympics and was ejected in the 1/8 final by Monika Mihalik. She won women’s middleweight bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games after defeating Chloe Spiteri
She has represented Canada as a women’s 63 kg freestyle wrestler at the 2016 Summer Olympics and Muslim Solidarity Games .
She won the gold medal at 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in under 68 kg weight, after defeating Danielle Lappedge of Canada.
In June 2021, Obi qualified for the Africa and Oceania qualifying tournament to represent Nigeria at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. This event took place at the Poland Open 2021 in Warsaw, Poland as she won silver medal.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics
On 3 August 2021, she became the first Nigerian to win an Olympic wrestling medal after defeating American Tamira Mensah-Stock 4-1 at 2020 Summer Olympics. Eventually, she also won Nigeria’s first silver medal at Tokyo Olympics.