By Our Correspondent

As the Weightlifting event starts on Wednesday, August 7, Nigeria’s weightlifter, Joy Ogbonne Eze who will be competing in the women’s 71kg category has affirmed that making a lasting impression in Paris 2024 remains her dreams in her Olympics debut.

Eze, who grabbed three gold medals at the 2023 African Games in Ghana told NWF Media that she never doubted her ability after remarkably booking her ticket to the quadrennial competition.

“I was short of words when I got the information that I have picked a ticket to the Olympic Games. It will be my debut at the Olympics and I want to make the most of it,” Eze said in an interview with NWFL Media.

“I have been putting so much work and efforts at training sessions and I hope to continue with that until the start of our competition.

“I am grateful to the hard working NWF President, Dr Ibrahim Abdul and his board members, for the efforts to open camp for us immediately we qualified for the Olympic Games. We trained for like two months before the Ministry of Sports took over last month.

“The opportunity to go to Germany for a closed camping exercise is a good gesture that will enable me to perform at optimum at the Olympic Games. I promised to give my best as I strive to represent my fatherland.

The 20-year-old is a two-time gold medallist at the African Games in 2019 and 2023 in Morocco and Ghana and she also won the gold medal in the women’s 64 kg event at the 2021 African Weightlifting Championships in Nairobi, Kenya among other numerous accolades.

She vowed to do her best to follow in the footsteps of Ruth Ogbeifo and Mariam Usman who both won silver and bronze medals for Nigeria at the Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the 75kg and +75kg weight classes in that order.

The Weightlifting event at the Paris Olympic will commence on Wednesday, August 7.