Nigeria finishes 7th again at the commonwealth games, but with fewer medals
Team Nigeria finished seventh at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the same spot it held four years ago in Birmingham. But the team actually won fewer medals this time. The repeat ranking hides a real drop in performance.
Nigeria left Scotland with 24 medals: 10 gold, seven silver and seven bronze. The medals came from athletics, weightlifting, judo and the para-sports program. In 2022, Nigeria won 34 medals: 11 gold, nine silver and 14 bronze. So the rank might have stayed the same, but the medal count fell by ten.
Part of the reason is team size, Nigeria sent 74 athletes to Glasgow, competing in 10 sports. In Birmingham, the team had 92 athletes across seven sports. Looked at per athlete, Nigeria’s medal rate barely changed about 37 medals per 100 athletes in 2022, versus 32 per 100 in 2026. So most of the drop simply comes from a smaller team, not weaker athletes.
What changed more was where the medals came from. Boxing has long been one of Nigeria’s two strongest sports, along with athletics. This year, boxing won nothing, even though Nigeria sent a full squad, including Kadijat Ajishola, Patricia Mbata and Blessing Oraekwe. Athletics carried the team instead. Samuel Ogazi won the men’s 400m and Ezekiel Nathaniel won the 400m hurdlesboth first-ever Commonwealth titles for Nigeria in those events. Chukwuebuka Enekwechi became Nigeria’s first Commonwealth shot put champion. Weightlifting, judo and the para-sports team added the rest of the medals.
The result also fell short of what officials had promised. National Sports Commission Director-General Bukola Olopade had said before the Games that Nigeria could win up to 22 gold medals. The team won 10. Olopade had pointed to reforms under NSC Chairman Shehu Dikko and support from President Bola Tinubu as reasons for confidence.
Even so, Nigeria stayed well ahead of other African teams. South Africa finished 11th with 28 medals. Kenya finished 13th with 12. Nigeria and Jamaica both won 10 gold medals, but Nigeria’s higher silver count pushed it ahead; Jamaica finished eighth.
So this isn’t really a story about Nigeria falling apart. It’s a smaller team, leaning heavily on athletics, that held its ranking while one of its usual strong sports went quiet. Whether boxing’s poor showing was a one-time problem or the start of a bigger shift will likely shape how the NSC builds its team for the next Games.
