This Is the First African Curling Team to Reach the Winter Youth Olympics

A group of Nigerian teens has entered the history books as the first African curling team to qualify for the Winter Youth Olympics. The group, made up of players between the ages of 15 and 18, qualified at the World Junior-B Curling Championships, which were held in Finland in 2022. Their participation at the tournament was only made certain recently, as the team and their supporting staff struggled to secure funding to compete against the 24 other nations battling for gold. The games officially kick off on January 19, running until February 1.

The stride towards Winter Olympic Gold was littered with obstacles – the most obvious being Nigeria’s lack of winter and snow. Another challenge was lack of resources and government funding, with the team training on carpets in an apartment in Lagos. Speaking to BBC Sport Africa, 17-year-old team member Daniel Babalola said, “All of our hard work (goes) to waste if we don’t make it to the Games despite qualifying.” According to Nigerian Curling Federation (NCF) president Daniel Damola Oyedepo, most of the players had not played the sport on ice until the 2022 qualifiers. “It's a historic achievement for us, being the first of its kind in the entire African region,” he said. Surprisingly, the team and organization have been left to stand on their own. The team’s coach Imonite Kennedy spoke on the lack of acknowledgement from the Nigerian government since they started in 2018. “Despite not having a natural ice environment, we made do with floor curling yet no support had come from the government to help our ambitions,” Kennedy says.

Ismaila Abubakar, a top official in Nigeria’s Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, did not mince words at all. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not a major sport in Nigeria. We don’t have the money or the facility for the sport here. There’s nothing we can do about it,” he told BBC Sport Africa. The International Olympic Committee funded the transportation of six players, excluding the team’s two reserve players. Additionally, no funding was made available for the team’s traveling officials, coaches, or chaperons. The NCF and crowdfunding amongst the team’s families is what ultimately made their Olympic dreams a reality. "Our parents and coaches have worked hard to help us fulfill our dreams to fly Nigeria's flag at the Olympics," 15-year-old Oluwanimifise Wale-Adeogun told BBC Sport Africa.

The team, nicknamed The Broomzillas, is not the only squad from a country that does not experience snow or “real” winter temperatures. Jamaica, Colombia, Brazil, Thailand, and the Philippines are also sending representatives to claim victory in the snowy region.

Other Africans participating in this year’s Winter Youth Olympics are Lesotho’s monobob sleigher Dali Shabonna, with Tunisian monobob athletes Jonathan Lourimi, Beya Mokrani, and Sophie Ghorbal being the nation’s first to qualify for a Winter Olympic game – youth or adult.

Kenyan alpine skier Issa Laborde will take on the slopes in South Korea’s Jeongseon resort and is joined by 16-year-old Ashley Ongonga, who is set to become the continent’s first female cross-country skier. Also competing in the alpine skiing event are Lara Matkthaler from South Africa, and Algeria’s Abderrahmane Bouderbala.