On this day 24 years ago, Chioma Ajunwa sped down the runway in the women’s Long Jump final at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, breaking sand at a big Personal Best (PB), National Record (NR) and African Record (AR) of 7.12m.
Having not competed in 4 years, she added 22cm to her previous PB and took the entire field by surprise to win the GOLD medal ahead of the then reigning World Champion, Italy’s Fiona May (7.02m) and defending Olympic Champion, Jackie Joyner-Kersee (7.00m).
By that phenomenal performance, she became the first Nigerian to ever win a GOLD medal and the first African woman to win a Field event at the Olympic Games. Ajunwa remains Nigeria’s only individual (male or female) GOLD Medallist at the Olympics!
