Retired Nigerian athlete and the country’s sole individual Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunwa, has called on the government and administrators of Nigerian sports to put structures in place that will produce more champions for the country at the highest level of sports, The PUNCH reports.

Ajunwa made the call while reflecting on her achievement at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, where she won gold in the women’s long jump.

On Friday, August 2, 1996, Ajunwa leaped to a mark of 7.12m to claim gold ahead of Italy’s Fiona May and USA’s Jackie Joyner-Kersee, making her the first Nigerian and, till date, the only individual to win an Olympic gold medal for the country.

Thirty years after her achievement, the retired Deputy Commissioner of Police is saddened by Nigeria’s inability to produce another Olympic champion, blaming it on the deficient structure of sport in the country.

“While other nations built heroes, we clapped and forgot. While others invested in tracks, labs, coaches, and dreams, we went to sleep,” Ajunwa wrote on Facebook.

“It’s a 30-year reminder that talent alone is not enough. That without structure, funding, and vision, even our best will be our last.

“Honour Chioma Ajunwa not with speeches, but with action. Build the system she deserved.

“Find the Chioma in Ajegunle, in Enugu, Owerri, in Sokoto. Make sure that 30 years from now we are not writing this same message, because a nation that cannot produce another individual Olympic champion in 30 years is a nation that is failing its children.”

She also bemoaned how the country’s sporting heroes are forgotten.

In 2021, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu fulfilled the state’s promise to the retired athlete by handing her the keys to a three-bedroom flat in Iponri, Lagos, 25 years after former military administrator of Lagos State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, made the promise.

“Chioma gave us glory. What did we give back? If not Lagos State, what can Nigeria boast that they gave to Chioma?

“Dilapidated stadium. Unpaid allowances. Broken promises. We only celebrate our athletes when they win, and abandon them when they need us most. This anniversary is not just to celebrate Chioma.”

The following day after Ajunwa’s feat, the men’s football team beat Argentina 3-2 in the final of their event to win another historic gold for Nigeria, while what became Nigeria’s third gold medal came courtesy of the men’s 4x400m relay quartet at Sydney 2000.

The relay team comprising Nduka Awazie, Fidelis Gadzama, Clement Chukwu, Jude Monye, Sunday Bada and Enefiok Udo-Obong initially finished second behind the USA, but one of the Americans who featured in the semi-finals of the race, Jerome Young, was found guilty of doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 1999, thereby forfeiting all his results from 1999 to 2001.