Nigeria’s first medallist at the Olympic Games, Nojim Maiyegun, has died.
Lagos-born Maiyegun died on Monday, in Vienna, Austria, where he has been living for the past three or more decades after migrating from Nigeria.
Maiyegun, aged 85, died of natural causes in Vienna, Austria.
His partner, Rudolfine F Soultan, confirmed the death of the boxer in her Facebook post on Monday.
The post read, “My Jimmy died. I can’t say more about this right now because it’s just horrible. The day after tomorrow, we would have been together for 17 years.”
Known to be virtually impaired for years, he was reportedly been in and out of hospital in the past six months before his death.
Maiyegun’s death came just few days after the 60th anniversary of his feat when he won a bronze medal in boxing on 10th August 1964 at the Olympics in Tokyo.
He shared the bronze medal with Józef Grzesiak of Poland in the Light middleweight category.
At the Olympics the two losers in the semifinals are traditionally awarded the bronze medal, as there is no third place bout.
Two years later, in 1966, he won another bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.
Maiyegun left Nigeria in 1971 to begin a professional boxing career.
He fought 16 times and won 12 — 10 of them by knockout.
