As the 2024 Paris Olympics approach, RFI takes a look back at these medalists who have shone a spotlight on their countries, which are not used to dominating the podiums. Today, we focus on Ivorian Gabriel Tiacoh, the Montenegro women’s handball team, Surinamese Anthony Nesty, and Nigerian Issaka Daboré.
5 mins
Anthony Nesty, the Surinamese who tamed America in Seoul 1988
It is certainly one of the greatest Olympic feats in the history of the Games. On September 21, 1988, in the final of the 100-meter butterfly in the Jamsil swimming pool in Seoul, the world’s eyes were fixed on the American Matt Biondi. “The Torpedo of Moraga”, already a five-time gold medalist in these Games, is awaiting a sixth coronation. But it is Anthony Nesta, a swimmer from Suriname who will splash his talent in this race which he wins by 1/100 of a second ahead of Biondi, leaving the American stunned and the swimming world stunned. Because nothing predestined this 21-year-old, born in Trinidad and Tobago, to become the sensation of Seoul. In Paramaribo, where he grew up and discovered swimming, the country of 600,000 inhabitants only had a 50-meter pool at the time. Before the feat in Seoul, Anthony Nesty had placed 21st at the Los Angeles Games where Biondi won gold. But this small performance allowed him to be spotted, to go to train in the United States and to win the first Olympic medal for Suriname in Seoul. After his success, Nesty received the greatest honors in Suriname: coins and commemorative stamps were issued with his image, he appeared on Surinamese 25 florin banknotes, gave his name to the national training pool, and the airline Surinam Airways names one of its planes “Nesty”. In 1992, at the Barcelona Olympics, he won the bronze medal behind the Olympic champion… Matt Biondi. The latter will wonder for a long time about the day of September 21, 1988: “ For a hundredth of a second, what would it have been like if I had had longer nails? »
Issaka Daboré, lightning in his fists, bronze on his neck
He inherited the nickname “Aradou”, “the god of lightning” in Hausa. At home, he is still a legend. Issaka Daboré may have been small (1.63 m, 64 kilos in healthy weight), but he nonetheless remains a giant of boxing in Niger. The first athlete to represent his country at the Olympic Games in 1964 in Tokyo, he fought in the under 67 kilo category and reached the quarter-finals. In 1968, in Mexico, Issaka Daboré returned, this time in the under 63.5 kilo category, and stopped in the third round. His third participation in the Olympic Games, in 1972 in Munich, made him go down in history: still in the under 63.5 kilo category, the Nigerian beat the Ghanaian Odartey Lawson and the South Korean Park Tai-Shik by technical knockout, before to dominate the Japanese Kyoji Shinohara on points. Only the Bulgarian Angel Angelov managed to stop him in the semi-final. Bronze medalist, Issaka Traoré will wait until 2016 to see a compatriot, Abdoulrazak Issoufou Alfaga, bring back to Niger a second Olympic medal with silver in taekwondo. Shortly before his death at the end of 2021 at the age of 81, the boxer was honored by the Nigerien authorities for his admirable career in the rings.
Gabriel Tiacoh, the Ivorian angel of the 1984 Olympics
Before the exploits of the taekwondoists Cheick Cissé and Ruth Gbagbi at Rio 2016, Ivory Coast experienced the joys of an Olympic medal thanks to Gabriel Tiacoh. The 400-meter runner offered the first Olympic medal to the country of Elephants by finishing on the second step of the podium in the final in Los Angeles in 1984. Born in Toumoudi, near Yamoussoukro, to a father who was a gynecologist and founding member of the party Ivorian PDCI politician, Gabriel Tiacoh discovered athletics in France at the Épinay-sur-Seine club where he joined at the age of 13. Several times French junior champion, he went into exile in the United States to continue his studies, but did not abandon sport. He perfected his skills in Washington through contact with Kenyan athletes like Julius Korir, future gold medalist in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in 1984. In Los Angeles, Gabriel Tiacoh won the silver medal with a time of 44s 54, establishing a new African record. At 21, he appeared as a great hope for Ivorian and African athletics, but Tiacoh did not qualify for the final four years later in Seoul. On April 4, 1992 in Atlanta, he died of meningitis at the age of 29.
The silver feat of Montenegrin handball players at London 2012
A young state, which proclaimed its independence in 2006, a small country of 600,000 inhabitants, Montenegro entered the Olympic Games with a bang in 2012 in London. For its first participation in the Games, the Montenegrin women’s handball team won the silver medal, the only Olympic “trophy” in the country’s history. An immense achievement for this state, barely larger than Qatar or the Gambia. The national women’s handball team has been, and remains, the best sporting showcase of this former state of the Yugoslav federation. In London, she arrived simply escorted by a 6th place at the 2010 European Championship and a 10th place at the 2011 World Championship. The Montenegrins completed the first round in fourth place and last qualifying place in their pool of six teams by beating (only) Great Britain and Angola. It was in the quarter-final, against France, first in its group and tournament favorite, that the Dragan Adzic girls, led by Katarina Bulatovic, top scorer of the tournament (53 goals), created the first sensation of the Olympics. The Blues are eliminated by one goal (22-23). Rebelote in the semi-final: Montenegro takes out Spain, double European champion and third in the last World Cup (27-26). Only the immense Norway, reigning Olympic and world champion, will get the better of this astonishing team which lost in the final (26-23). Four months later, the Montenegrins took their revenge in the final of the European Championships, confirming that the London epic was anything but a coincidence.