Nigeria’s women basketball team, D’Tigress, has praised head coach Rena Wakama for the team’s performance at the ongoing 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.
The team became the first African side in both men and women’s basketball to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Olympics by downing Canada 79-70 on Sunday.
Wakama had said about the victory, “Surreal. This isn’t going to hit me for another couple of hours. I’m extremely proud of my girls.”
Victory over world number five team was the second win of the Olympics for D’Tigress after a surprising victory against Australia. That was the first win in the Olympics in 20 years for the team.
D’Tigress was winless at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and then internal strife between the basketball federation and the government caused the team to miss playing in the World Cup in 2022.
Wakama was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 11, 1992. Johnson Wakama and Rosana Oba, her parents, are natives of Okrika in Rivers State.
Last year, she led the team to win the women’s Afrobasket championship by defeating Senegal 84-74. She made history as the first female coach to win the competition since it began in 1966. It was Nigeria’s fourth consecutive victory at the championship.
Celebrating her heroics at the Olympics, the team wrote in a post on X on Monday: “President General Among The Nations!! On your mandate we stand!”
Nigeria will play the defending Olympic champions, USA, in the quarterfinal on Wednesday night.
