In athletics, football, MMA, the Olympic Games, many African athletes have left their mark on the sports world in recent months. Here are eleven champions of the continent who shone in 2021.
Little known before Tokyo 2021, Feryal Abdelaziz made an impression by becoming the first Egyptian gold medalist at the Olympic Games. What is more in karate, a discipline for which it was the first appearance at the Olympics. The 22-year-old then won a team gold medal at the 2021 World Championships. She is the symbol of Egypt’s success in the sport.
Ali Farag (Squash / Egypt)
The Mr Fantastic of squash lived a full year 2021 both on a personal level – his partner, champion Nour El Tayeb, gave birth to a daughter – and in sportsmanship, notably with his coronation during the 2020-2021 PSA World Championships. The Egyptian therefore finishes at the top of the world ranking of professional players.
One of the revelations and surprises of the Tokyo 2021 Games. At just 18, he won Olympic gold in the 400-meter freestyle. Before the 2018 African Championships in Algiers, few knew his potential. Since then, the Tunisian has confirmed by winning the silver medal over 1,500 meters, during the World Short Course, with the African record and one of the best times of all time.
On August 8, 2021 in Sapporo, northern Japan, the Kenyan became the third marathoner in history to retain his Olympic title, after the Ethiopian Abebe Bikila (1960 and 1964) and the East German Waldemar Cierpinski (1976 and 1980). Will the distance record holder (2 hours, 1 minute and 39 seconds) still be there in Paris in 2024?
She also retained her gold medal at the Tokyo 2021 Games. But over 1,500 meters, with a stunning end of the race and an Olympic record in the end (3 minutes, 53 seconds and 11 hundredths). At only 27 years old, the Kenyan has not finished beating and winning titles.
Ntando Mahlangu (Athletics / South Africa)
The South African is a prodigy of para-athletics. After winning a silver medal at just 14 at the Rio Games, he won two golds at Tokyo 2021 (long jump T63 and 200 meters T61) at 19. World champion in Dubai in 2019, Ntando Mahlangu will however have to wait to defend his title, the organizers of the 2022 Kobe Worlds having requested their postponement to 2024.
The Mboma meteorite hit the sprinting world at the Tokyo Games, winning the 200-meter silver at just 18, despite very rudimentary running technique and inexperience over this distance. Forbidden to run the 400 meters because of her hyperandrogenism, the Namibian indeed fell back on the U-turn. She took a scathing revenge on the regulations of the International Athletics Federation.
Since his arrival at Chelsea in September 2020, the Senegalese goalkeeper has exploded into broad daylight. Winner of the Champions League 2021 with the English club, the Senegalese connects high class performances and often keeps his clean sheet. 2022, will it also be the year of Mendy, who will play in the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon with the Senegal team?
On March 27, 2021, Francis Ngannou knocked out the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) world heavyweight champion, Stipe Miocic, the same one who had given him an MMA lesson three years earlier. There followed a tour of Cameroon with the belt. Since then, the Cameroonian has been cold with the UFC, with which he struggles to renegotiate a new contract. But he will have the opportunity to settle accounts on January 22, 2022 with his first title defense, against French Ciryl Gane.
The new African swimming icon has arrived. With the Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, the South African, gold medalist in the 200-meter breaststroke and silver in the 100-meter breaststroke in Tokyo 2021, in any case embodies the continental succession. Next May, she should be back in Japan to try to land a podium at the 2022 Worlds in Fukukoa.
In 2021, “The Nigerian Nightmare” will have successfully defended his UFC welterweight world champion’s belt three times. A rare activity for a defending champion. In need of a challenge in his category, the Nigerian no longer excludes from facing his friend and compatriot Israel Adesanya, champion, him, of the middleweights.