Chioma Ajunwa: How police officer became first woman to win Olympic gold for Nigeria

When you hear about Nigerian police officers what comes to your mind is not always palatable right? Well, you may not be wrong with the perception. But there are many police officers who are doing the Force and the nation proud. One of them is Chioma Ajunwa.

Chioma Ajunwa may be famous as the first Nigerian female Olympic gold medalist, but there is more about her than her exploit at the Olympics.

The story of her rise to grace will never be complete without mentioning the hard life she went through like the experience of many other Nigerians as aptly described in Blackface’s hit track ‘Hard Life’.

Losing her father at a very young age didn’t help as the burden of catering for nine children was left to her mother. She was the last of the children and they had to struggle so hard to make meaning out of life. It wasn’t a rosy journey for the Ajunwas.

Before making exploit in athletics, Chioma also tried her hands on soccer and was part of The Falcons team that competed at the 1991 World Cup. Before then she had enrolled as a motor mechanic apprentice because her mother couldn’t raise funds to pay her school fees when she was offered admission in a university at 18. Again, she couldn’t go further because her mom was against the decision probably because the trade was seen as ‘man’s job’.

She was forced to drink from sour juice of setback in 1992 when she was banned for four years after failing a drug test.

Just like the popular saying – “the downfall of a man is not the end of his life”, after a series of setbacks and coming back from her four-year-ban, Chioma went on to become the first African woman and Nigerian to win Olympic gold medal in a track and field event after her 7.12m jump at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

She remains the only Nigerian who has won an individual Olympic gold medal in the country’s 68 years of participating in the competition.

She also competed and won a bronze medal in the 1990 Commonwealth Games, as well as the African Championships in 1989 and the All African Games in 1991 where she clinched gold medals in long jump.

The 49-year-old athlete from Imo state is presently a senior police officer. She was conferred a national honour as a Member of the Order of Niger (MON) by former Head of State Sani Abacha and in 2010 she was among the 50 personalities honoured with the Golden Jubilee Independence Award by former President Goodluck Jonathan.