Team Nigeria concluded its campaign at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games with three gold medals—all in athletics.
This is Nigeria’s best-ever gold medal haul at the Youth Olympics, surpassing the previous high of two golds from the inaugural Singapore 2010 edition.
The medals came exclusively from sprint events. Gift Bright (men’s 100m) won gold in a Games record and personal best of 10.28 seconds (+1.7 m/s wind). He became the first Nigerian to win the men’s 100m title at the Youth Olympics, finishing ahead of China’s Zhang Hangyu (10.57) and Poland’s Szymon Dolega (10.61).
Rosemary Nwankwo (women’s 100m) took gold in 11.16 seconds (wind-assisted +2.4 m/s). She completed a historic Nigerian sprint double (the first country to win both men’s and women’s 100m titles at the same Youth Olympics edition) and became the third Nigerian woman to win the event (after Josephine Omaka in 2010 and Rosemary Chukwuma in 2018). Silver went to Arwa Ali (UAE, 11.41) and bronze to Dana Salem (Qatar, 11.48).
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Then Praise Ugoh won the third gold in a personal best of 52.76 seconds, becoming the first Nigerian to win the Youth Olympic women’s 400m title. She edged Osmary Pacheco (Venezuela, 52.85) and Aisha Muhammed (UAE, 53.06).
Meanwhile, the National Sports Commission (NSC) and officials highlighted the results as evidence of emerging sprint talent, grassroots development, and the potential of Nigerian youth athletes.
With the games coming to an end on Friday, November 13, Team Nigeria currently occupy 13th place in the medal table.
