What a man can do, a woman can do much more, right? The quartet of Beatrice Utondu, Faith Idehen, Mary Onyali and Christy Opara-Thompson sure did prove this saying as they raced to victory in the women’s 4x100m event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
In a time when no woman had ever won a medal for Nigeria at the Olympics, four Nigerian women would go on to claim a Bronze medal win; Nigeria’s second relay medal in Olympic history.
Before the race, Nigeria’s relay representation in the women’s event was not classified as threats to race favourites, thus rated the least possible team to succeed.
This was about to change as the world stood spellbound by the strength, speed and beautiful executions by the country’s prime ladies on the track.
In a moment of truth, following a brief battle against France for the finish line, commentators, spectators and the entire globe had their eyes glued to the big screen to see who the winner would be, France or Nigeria.
And there it was, Nigeria in 3rd place.
The crowd raved with excitement and so did the four ladies who made this possible. Their celebration after the announcement, which is yet one of the most enthralling of all time, led to the creation of an Olympic TV Advert.
Nigeria won a total of four medals (3 Silver, 1 Bronze) at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
One of the four amazing women, Mary Onyali, went on to become Nigeria’s most decorated athlete of all time, featuring in 5 consecutive Olympics games, a success no Nigerian track and field athlete has so far been able to match.
Feature image: makingofchamps.com
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