Blessing Oborududu
Nigerian Olympic wrestler
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Blessing Oborududu (born 12 March 1989, in Gbanranu) is a Nigerian freestyle wrestler.[1] She is currently ranked as the world number two woman wrestler and also the first wrestler to win an Olympic medal representing Nigeria at the Olympics.[2][3] She is also a twelve-time African champion from 2010 to 2023.
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Oborududu at the 2020 Summer Olympics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 12 March 1989 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Nigeria | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Amateur wrestling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Freestyle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Career
Oborududu was invited to a national camp in 2007 to take part at the African Games after noticing her impressive performances at school inter-house wrestling competitions.[4][5] Her parents were initially against her ambition to become a sport wrestler and advised her that wrestling is allocated only for boys. She idolised Canadian-Nigerian wrestler Daniel Igali who was originally regarded as the first person from Nigeria to win an Olympic medal in wrestling.[5]
She has won a gold medal at the African Wrestling Championships every year for the last 11 years, except for 2012 when she did not enter due to competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics.[6][7] She competed in the freestyle 63 kg event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and was eliminated in the 1/8 finals by Monika Michalik.[8]
She won the bronze medal in the women's middleweight at the 2014 Commonwealth Games after defeating Chloe Spiteri in her bronze medal match.[9] She also competed in the women's middleweight at the 2016 Summer Olympics, losing to Soronzonboldyn Battsetseg in the second round.[10] She won a gold medal for women 63 kg category at the 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games.[11][12] She won a gold medal at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 68 kg women's freestyle wrestling event, defeating Canada's Danielle Lappage.[13]
She qualified at the 2021 African & Oceania Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament to represent Nigeria at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.[14][15] In June 2021, she won the silver medal in her event at the 2021 Poland Open held in Warsaw, Poland.[16][17]
On 3 August 2021, she won the silver medal in the women's freestyle 68 kg after losing to America's Tamyra Mensah-Stock 4–1 at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[18][19][20][21] She also became the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal in wrestling.[22][5] She also eventually won the Nigeria's first silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.[23]
In 2022, she won the gold medal in the 68 kg event at the Yasar Dogu Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey.[24] by beating her counterpart Meerim Zhumanazarova from Kyrgyzstan 3–2.[25] She won the gold medal in her event at the 2022 African Wrestling Championships held in El Jadida, Morocco.[26] A month later, she won one of the bronze medals in her event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2022 held in Rome, Italy.[27] She won the gold medal in the women's 68 kg event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England.[28]
