Nigerian female wrestling sensation, Odunayo Adekuoroye has set her sight on winning a gold medal at next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, where she believes her already remarkable impact on the global grappling scene would be cemented, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although she already has a lot of medals at national, continental, Commonwealth and global levels, the six time African champion and World Wrestling Championship silver medalist is quick to admit that an Olympics’ medal is more symbolic than anything else.
With that notion top of her mind, the Mountain of Fire & Ministries (MFM) product is already setting her plans in motion to finally take the world by storm when the Olympics eventually hold next year, following its postponement from this July, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The astute female grappler, who reached the Rio 2016 Olympics quarter-finals losing to bronze medalist, Sofia Mattsson of Sweden, added that she cannot wait to make history in becoming the first African female wrestler to win the Games’ gold medal.
While confessing that she felt disappointed with the loss she suffered early in her Games debut, as she recalled that her outing at Rio 2016 was short-lived, Adekuoroye is enthusiastic that 2021 will be a better story for how when she goes all the way to top spot in Tokyo.
Adekuoroye told Olympic Channel: “Sometimes I ask myself why the Olympics have been postponed because most of my private times I have been drifting to Tokyo. I imagine myself fighting in the final at the Olympics.
“I find myself often thinking about how the gold medal will be represented to me; my dream finally coming true. I cannot wait to experience that moment and make history as the first African woman to win Olympic gold in wrestling.
“It was special but a sad moment for me. I hoped I could get a medal. But I think one of the major problems I had, I did not have very good preparations and I was still young and just eager to win but since then I have wrestled a lot of matches that gives me confidence that I am now one of the top competitors to watch out for.”
