Blessing Oborududu

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.

Blessing Oborududu

Oborududu at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Born	(1989-03-12) 12 March 1989 (age 36)
Sport
Country	Nigeria
Sport	Amateur wrestling
Event	Freestyle
Medal record Women's freestyle wrestling Representing  Nigeria Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo 68 kg African Championships 2010 Cairo 59 kg 2011 Dakar 63 kg 2013 N'Djamena 63 kg 2014 Tunis 63 kg 2015 Alexandria 63 kg 2016 Alexandria 69 kg 2017 Marrakesh 63 kg 2018 Port Harcourt 68 kg 2019 Hammamet 68 kg 2020 Algiers 68 kg 2022 El Jadida 68 kg 2023 Hammamet 68 kg 2024 Alexandria 68 kg 2009 Casablanca 59 kg African Games 2015 Brazzaville 63 kg 2019 Rabat 68 kg 2023 Accra 68 kg Commonwealth Games 2018 Gold Coast 68 kg 2022 Birmingham 68 kg 2010 Delhi 63 kg 2014 Glasgow 63 kg Islamic Solidarity Games 2017 Baku 63 kg Yasar Dogu Tournament 2022 Istanbul 68 kg 2019 Istanbul 68 kg 2021 Poland Open 2021 Poland 68 kg

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]