Africa is well-represented at the Tokyo olympics this year. Even though it has only been 5 days, Africans have already won quite a few medals, starting with a gold metal from the Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui in 400m freestyle swimming, and silver medals for South Africans Tatjana Schoenmaker and Bianca Buitendag in 100m breastrokes and surfing, and Mohamed Jendoubi of Tunisia in Taekwondo; while Ruth Gbagbi of Ivory Coast, Hedaya Wahba and Seif Eissa both of Egypt all took bronze in Taekwondo.
This year, five new events have been added: surfing (not sure how many countries play this sport to be at the Olympics?), sport climbing (what sort of climbing is this? I have climbed so many trees I should be an olympian), baseball/softball (how many countries actually have teams for these, except those influenced by the US?), skateboarding (Olympics sport?) and Karate (It’s about time – always wondered why this global discipline was not part of the Olympics anyways).
There are quite a lot African athletes participating at the 2021 Tokyo 2020 olympics. Below are a few to keep an eye out on :
Algeria: Taoufik Makhloufi (gold in London2012 and 2 silvers Rio2016)
Botswana: London 2012 silver medalist Nijel Amos is highly anticipated
Burkina Faso Triple jumper Hugues Fabrice Zango,
Burundi: Francine Niyonsaba (Rio2016 silver 800m)
Cote d’Ivoire: Ruth Gbagbi (bronze at Rio 2016), Cheick Cisse (gold at the last Olympics – Ivory Coast’s first gold medal ever) in Taekwondo, and the amazing runner Marie-Josee Ta Lou.
Egypt: Azmy Mehelba in shooting, Giana Farouk in Karate, Seif Eissa (won bronze yesterday) in Taekwondo
Eritrea: Merhawi Kudus in cycling (Eritrea’s first participation in cycling)
Ethiopia’s star runners Letesenbet Gidey and Selemon Barega
Gambia: Gina Bass in running
Kenya: we are highly expecting the amazing Brigid Kosgei and Eliud Kipchoge (marathon world-record holder, gold medal in Rio 2016), and Rio 2016 silver Javelin winner Julius Yego.
Morocco: Khadija Mardi in boxing, Ramzi Boukhiam in surfing
Mozambique: Deisy Nhaquile in sailing
Niger: Abdoulrazak Issoufou Alfaga (Rio 2016 Silver – Taekwondo)
Nigeria: the anticipated long jumper and runner Blessing Okagbare, and Ese Brume
Seychelles: Rodney Govinden in sailing (second participation for the Seychelles)
South Africa: the super star swimmer Chad Le Clos (2012 gold, 2 silvers in 2016), Akani Simbane in running, Caitlin Rooskrantz in gymnastics (first participation of South Africa), Tatjana Schoenmaker (swimming) and Bianca Buitendag (surfing), Erin Sterkenburg (surfing), Boipelo Awuah (skateboarding – she is the youngest African athlete at the Olympics this year)
Tunisia: Ons Jabeaur in Tennis, Ines Boubakri (2016 Rio bronze medal) in fencing, this year’s gold winner in 100m freestyle Ahmed Hafnaoui, and 2008 and 2012 Olympics gold medalist Oussama Mellouli (long-distance swimmer), Mohamed Jendoubi
Uganda: Runners Jacob Kiplimo and Joshua Cheptegei
Zimbabwe golfer Scott Vincent
African Heritage 
I haven’t followed the Olympics too much. It’s weird seeing so few people at this event given the current circumstances. Thanks for keeping track of the medal counts in the different sports.
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Right? so few people… these events were really not so well attended even by athletes
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Makes sense. There were some events that I didn’t know existed in the Olympics like trampolining for example.
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Yes… me too… trampolining? Seriously! Maybe I should think about competing 🙂
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Maybe you should give it a try. Haha! I was surprised with how interesting it was with how high the athletes can jump while doing all these different flips. I wasn’t aware that it’s a sub-section of gymnastics, but I guess it makes sense given the stuff they do. Just so you know, Belarus won the men’s gold and China won the women’s gold in that sport. I’m also going to see if I can check out the Paralympics which starts on the 24th.
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