Despite Team Nigeria’s poor outing at the Paris 2024 Olympics where the country failed to win a single medal, there was a cause to smile as head coach of the country’s senior women’s basketball team, Rena Wakama, was named the best coach of the Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament, The PUNCH reports.
Parading 88 athletes in 12 sports, Nigeria’s 19th appearance at the Olympic Games ended in a fiasco, the team failed to win a medal at Paris 2024, which came to an end on Sunday after 16 days of intense jostling for medals.
It was the eighth time that the country had failed to pick up a single medal at the Games since their first outing at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.
Other barren runs include Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960, Mexico 1968, Moscow 1980, Seoul 1988, London 2012 and Paris 2024.
However, the country’s only shining light in Paris was Wakama’s D’Tigress which dazzled.
One of the youngest coaches in Olympic history, Wakama delivered a new high tide mark for Nigerian and African basketball.
D’Tigress outing in Paris was the most impactful performance by an African team in history at the Olympic Basketball Tournaments with the 32-year-old coach one of the main drivers of Nigeria’s unprecedented success.
Despite being tagged underdogs, Nigeria were sensational at the tournament, attaining historical and unprecedented success and winning the hearts of basketball fans following their victories over Australia and Canada.
Nigeria made everyone sit up and take notice by beating the Opals on opening day and that was the first time they had won a Group phase game in 20 years.
They, however, suffered their first defeat at the Paris 2024 Olympics, slumping to a 75-54 defeat to France in their second Group C game.
After their loss to France in their second game, Wakama said the African champions needed to get back to their ways against Canada, which was exactly what they did.
Parading several big names, rising teenagers, and recent WNBA draft picks, Canada were favoured to hold their own against any opponent in France after finishing fourth at a recent FIBA Women’s World Cup, but they were surprisingly schooled by the impressive D’Tigress.
D’Tigress tore up the script in a big way at the Olympics, shooting down Canada 79-70 to become the first African team (women or men) to make it beyond the group phase in the history of Olympic basketball.
Despite being ranked 12th in the world, the lowest among the participating teams at the tournament, Nigeria gained the upper hand in the contest with a stunning 11-0 run to start the second half. It left the world No. 5 reeling as they failed to recover from the heavy setback.
It was also the team’s first time recording two wins at the Olympics, which they did impressively to confirm winless Canada’s early trip home.
Their campaign eventually ended when they were beaten by the USA, but even then they showed their fighting spirit and qualities until the very end.
Under the guidance of Wakama, D’Tigress set themselves new standards at Paris 2024, including the last game against the United States.
The AfroBasket champions scored more than 73 points in consecutive games for the first time at the Olympics, and their 26 points in the fourth quarter of last Wednesday’s game are the most the USA has ever allowed in the last quarter of a game in the competition.
After guiding D’Tigress to an array of historical achievements in Paris at just 32 years old, Wakama has been deservedly crowned Best Coach.
Also, New Jersey-born point guard and three-time AfroBasket champion Ezinne Kalu made the star-studded All-Second Team of the Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament Paris 2024.
Kalu was phenomenal for Nigeria in their history-making campaign. The point guard was a major force behind the team as they became the first-ever African team to play in the Olympic quarter-finals. She averaged 18.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game.