Nojim Maiyegun was a famous Nigerian boxer who made history by becoming the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal.
He was born on February 21, 1944, in Lagos, and rose to fame when he won a bronze medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, in the men’s Light Middleweight (71 kg) category.
Maiyegun, also known by his nickname “Omo Oloja,” moved to Austria in 1971 to find more opportunities in his boxing career.
Besides his Olympic success, he also won a bronze medal at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica and several other medals, including a gold at the African Championship.
Maiyegun’s boxing career was cut short when he began to lose his sight, likely due to injuries from boxing.
Despite going blind, he showed incredible strength by continuing to work in Austria as a street cleaner and janitor for 28 years.
Even after losing his sight, Maiyegun achieved remarkable things, like becoming the first completely blind person in Austria to climb a 1,700-meter mountain and parachute from it.
He married in 1962 and had three children who live in London.
Nojim Maiyegun passed away recently at the age of 85 in Vienna, Austria, after being ill for several months.
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