“They say the downfall of a man is the beginning of his life,” said Nigeria’s Joshua Omole, reflecting the challenges he has overcome to secure a quota spot for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. There are many times Omole contemplated quitting the sport. He had so many reasons to do so, from being disappointed by his boxing journey to needing to earn money to pay for food. “I stayed positive,” he told us on Friday (15 September), moments after the 24-year-old became the second of three Nigerians to earn an Olympic berth through their performance at the Paris 2024 Boxing Africa Olympic Qualifier, live on Olympic Channel.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024. “There will be a time I’m in training with my coach hard and, at the end, there will be nothing for me to eat, yet I was already starving even before training,” the Lagos bred boxer told Olympics.com ringside at the Dakar Arena in the Senegalese capital.
“Training morning and evening and I am starving. It really weighed me down, but I kept struggling as I needed to get my family, get my people out of poverty.” But he still managed to summon every last drop of his strength to get up every morning and pursue a passion his mother strongly believed he was made for. “There are those who didn’t think I am good enough for the team, but every time they held the National Trials I won with knockdowns.”
Omole had to box around for most of his Friday final against a charged Yadesa Leta in the men’s 57kg, and was relieved to grab a ‘life-changing quota slot to Paris’ on a split decision. He survived a physical contest that he managed to control in the first round. Ethiopian Leta kept at him with blistering speed in their bout, boxing him around the ring in the last six minutes, but Omole’s accurate punches, especially his left cross, had earned him enough points to win a 3-2 split of what was sometime a messy bout, and ensure he became the first male boxer from his nation to earn an Olympic slot since Rio 2016. “This has been my dream since 2020, but Nigeria didn’t come here, but this is my time to take over,” an overjoyed Omole told Olympics.com.
Source: OLYMPICS
